Falling down on safety
Are there really 8000 unstable balconies in Australia? Could there be even more? After a wooden balcony packed with young people gave way during a party at a house in…
State of emergency
Long-time readers of this column will be amazed at this week’s question. For once, a strata manager isn’t accused of doing too little; the complaint is they are doing too…
Strata horror scope
This is the time of year when everybody’s doing horoscopes for the coming 12 months so we should have our own predictions, our Strata-scope, if you like. Firstly, there’s a…
Disaster moves
We’ve had dust storms, firestorms and good old-fashioned floods in Australia recently. The plagues of frogs and locusts must be just around the corner. More significantly for apartment owners we’ve…
Defective law dumped
Pardon me while I do a small lap of honour round my office. Following a couple of calls from yours truly, the NSW Office of Fair Trading has promised to…
Pre-2104 columns
These are the raw versions of my Flat Chat columns written for the Sydney Morning Herald’s ‘Domain’ section. Some of the issues are specific to New South Wales, some are…
When repairs break the bank
The principle of “don’t fix it if it ain’t broke” is the least of the problems in strata complexes. One reader lives in a complex of 20 townhouses where it…
Strata Stress in Victoria
This article appeared in the MELBOURNE AGE in October 2008. By Jimmy Thomson Apartment buildings in Melbourne and across Victoria may be heading for financial meltdown as unit owners face…
Safety first on OHS fees
It’s a grey area of strata living – is a strata plan a collection of homes or effectively a business? And if it is a business, do we have to…
Water On The Brain
The recent heavy rains in Sydney had everyone running for cover. In my own block, the denialist developers are insisting that the clear evidence of their shoddy workmanship ” water…
Curbing crazy EC members
It’s hard to know what to say about Harry Triguboff’s statement, mentioned in passing in a recent interview in the Sydney Morning Herald, that he had persuaded Bob Carr to…
Finding a Good Strata Manager
Strata managers are an essential cog in the running of apartment buildings, especially large ones. But when things go wrong, they can often appear to be little more than a…