Pet hates and petty issues ‘clogging Qld tribunals’
Strata schemes pursuing trivial issues such as trying to ban pets from lifts or doormats from lift lobbies are clogging up the adjudication system in Queensland, says the state’s main…
SM contracts to be fixed but not set in stone
Contracts between strata managers and owners corporations have been accused of being one-sided, rigid and unfair, but they are unlikely to be replaced by standard statutory contracts any time soon…
Forum: Cashed-up and confused by costs levy
Here’s a bit of a brainteaser. An owners corp has won its tribunal case against a couple of lot owners over unapproved renovations. The OC’s strata manager has now asked…
Podcast: Airbnb curbs and the intercom of doom
Like a wayward teenager who stayed out too late, Airbnb is creeping back into our lives, hoping to avoid our parental wrath, but finding a less than loving reception waiting…
Trapped in a 50-floor block with no working intercom
It was once Australia’s tallest and most luxurious apartment building, but residents of the Sydney CBD’s Park Regis today live in less-than-splendid isolation. With the access intercom system having been…
Rapid response law to curb holiday let horrors
Noosa Shire Council is about to become the first council in Queensland, if not Australia, to insist on holiday letting landlords having a rapid response system in place to deal…
Forum: Time to rewrite strata manager contracts?
The standard strata management agreement – as issued by Strata Community Australia – is a brute of a document. And while it’s not an mandatory form as, for instance, the…
Podcast: Where should strata be in government?
This week on the pod we ask the question, if Strata doesn’t belong in Fair Trading, then where should it go? As Jimmy explains in this column (which also appeared…
What the pandemic has taught us about ourselves
There’s a quirky UK comedy series on TV called Taskmaster, in which five comedians are set a series of bizarre physical and logical challenges, usually with hilarious results. At the…
Apartment blocks getting wired-up about EVs
Apartment buildings throughout Australia are racing to install electric vehicle-charging systems in their garages even though many still have no electric car-owners – or, at most, just one, writes Sue…
Airbnb ‘won’t name renter of trashed unit to police’
Just a few weeks since the much-vaunted short-term letting register and code of conduct became law, Riot Squad police have twice been called in to break up violent and destructive…
Strata isn’t fixed – and it’s in the wrong ministry
When Dominic Perrottet announced his new cabinet last week, it wasn’t the changes at the top that drew most attention from apartment owners and strata professionals. It was one near…