Insurance loans for cash-strapped strata schemes
With strata insurance being one of the few mandatory expenses in apartment blocks – even essential maintenance can be delayed and deferred – it looms as a serious concern for…
Mutually assured distraction … working AT home or ON your home
If there was going to be anywhere in these long days of lockdown that mutually exclusive wants and needs were going to butt up against each other, it was apartments.…
TMI … but managers’ guide may just be invaluable
Can there be such a thing as too much information in these confused and trying times? At the risk of nit-picking, the recently issued Strata Community Australia guide to dealing…
From the Forum: Money, money, money … or not
Unsurprisingly, finances are on a lot of people’s minds these days, whether it’s levies or rent and what you do when you can’t afford to pay. And then, of course…
Podcast 70 – renos and what to wear when working from home
In this week’s Flat Chat Wrap, Jimmy and Sue discuss the competing and often conflicting needs of those who are working from home and those who are working on their…
Buy the by-law and say bye-bye to Airbnb
If you thought the battle to restrict Airbnb-style short-term rentals from apartment buildings that don’t want them was over in NSW, you may be in for a shock. The new…
Make a connection to somebody less tech savvy
A while ago I was setting up Skype on my in-laws’ computer as they were far away in the NSW Blue Mountains (hence the need for Skype). First I verbally…
From the Forum: Can we say no to noisy renos during lockdown?
If you think being forced to work from home – or even just being stuck indoors with no work to go to – is bad enough, imagine how it feels…
Podcast 69 – fostering pets, falling rents, failing tradies and TV flats
This week’s Flat Chat Wrap has just about everything; pets, tradies, TV shows set in apartments and, of course, Airbnb – plenty to keep your spirits up through the Lockdown.…
Foster or adopt – a pet could end your isolation
As we are all still being advised to stay at home if we can, there is only so much TV you can watch on your own, and so many cute…
New rules on rent relief and evictions announced
Since at least half of the residents in strata are renters (meaning about half of the properties are owned by landlords) the recent announcements about the moratorium on evictions and…
Airbnb ‘ban’ and the Code of Conduct clusterfunk
It was late in the afternoon on Friday, April 3 that we got the tip-off … the long-awaited, much-discussed and hugely haggled-over Code of Conduct for short-term rental hosts had…