Podcast: Secretive strata managers face fines
$110,000 fines for recalcitrant strata managers, new affordable homes for essential workers, better designs for low-rise blocks and the rights and wrongs of a land grab.
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Netstrata wants some report findings scrapped
Insiders have told the ABC that Netstrata has submitted a 70-page document countering some of the findings in the draft report into its "Strata Trap" allegations.
New laws passed to crack down on rogue SMs
New laws designed to crack down on strata managers receiving secret kickbacks while introducing higher penalties for agents doing the wrong thing, have passed the NSW parliament, the government announced…
Big strata wins again as new laws tread softly
It seems one person’s regulation is another’s backdoor legitimacy, if the reaction to this week’s anticipated “crackdown” on strata managers by NSW Fair Trading is anything to go by. Minister…
Forum: Sacked SM sneaks in a final commission
Every time you try to say something nice about strata managers, one of them goes and pulls a new scam that makes everyone look bad. The strata manager featured in…
Netstrata ‘forensic’ report only weeks away
If you thought the dust had settled on the Netstrata schemozzle, think again. The strata management giant is currently reaching the end of what can only be described as a…
Podcast: Luxury pad threat to low-cost homes
It’s a bit of a catch-up in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap and a look to the immediate future, too. We’ll be getting abreast of the news that NSW is…
Why your strata manager doesn’t respond to calls
If the recent insurance commission scandals have taught us nothing else, it is that some strata management firms are more about profits than service. That is not likely to change…
NSW to crack down on strata manager scams
The NSW State government is planning to crack down on the “small number” of “unscrupulous” strata managers whom it says are undermining public confidence in apartment living. New laws will…
SCA-NSW launches post Netstrata investigation
There were a lot of questions that remained following the devastating report on ABC TV into allegations that strata management giant Netstrata had side-stepped regulations on declaring commissions for insurance…
Managing the managers: it’s only common sense
It’s all gone very quiet over at Strata Community Association (SCA) NSW since their president Stephen Brell resigned in the wake of an expose of his company, Netstrata, on ABC…
Forum: Vexed question of in-house sex workers
There’s an arcane set of laws around both working from home in apartment buildings and about where sex workers can ply their trade. As far as working from home goes,…