Pets and apartments – an interview
A couple of weeks ago our friends at Pet Insurance Australia sent us some questions about pet ownership in strata schemes, to form the basis for a feature they’ll be…
by-laws
New Airbnb laws? Don’t hold your breath waiting
Psst! Don’t tell anybody but, you know those new laws about short-term holiday letting that everybody got their knickers in a twist about? Well, the rumour is that they’re not…
Business booms in blocking illegal Airbnbs
What would most Flatchatters change first about their apartment blocks if they had three magic wishes? Make it harder for people to let out their entire flat through Airbnb, was…
Roundup: When business bags your parking spots
The often irreconcilable differences between strata residents and commercial operators in the same scheme are to the fore in the Flat Chat Forum this week, with two tales with sadly…
Balcony smokers in your top three strata gripes
The results of our recent poll are in – not as definitive as a general election but more accurate than Peter Dutton’s guesstimate of his support – and there is…
Climate shame when strata airs its dirty laundry
It seems that energy prices and the belief (or not) that there’s such a thing as global warming have the power to topple Prime Ministers. The fossil fuel versus renewables…
Why pre-sale renos could be bad planning
For any prospective home buyer with a skerrick of visual imagination, a rundown home is a massive canvas on which to express themselves. That might apply to apartments even more…
NSW passes Australia’s tightest Airbnb laws
Short-term holiday letting in NSW will have “tougher but fairer” regulation from 2019, after the state parliament passed the Government’s plan for the industry yesterday. Minister for Better Regulation…
‘Business as usual’ for Airbnb by-laws, says strata lawyer
With the announcement two weeks ago that legislation is going to be changed, allowing owners corporations to pass by-laws forbidding owners from listing their entire apartments on holiday letting websites,…
Why lazy landlords end up with terrible tenants
If you are a landlord – or the less feudal term ‘property investor’ – do you think of your tenants as assets or liabilities? You might worry about getting bad…
Still problems in these pet-friendlier times
There’s lingering a belief around apartment living that unit blocks don’t allow pets, anywhere, ever. It goes back to the grim old days of three storey walk-ups when the rules…
The copy-cat trap: paying for cut and paste by-laws
Imagine you have commissioned a photograph of your apartment block from a local artist and they come up with a beautiful image that shows the building to its best…