Forum: Strip club poser for strata scheme
What can owners do when the fact that there's a strip club in the block causes insurance premiums to triple?
reno
Forum: On the offensive over fixing a fence
We have a real mixed bag of questions and answers this week so we’ll get straight into it. An owner’s dispute with the owners corp over replacement of a shared…
Costs and delays behind renovation war of words
As we often say here, apartment living can be a minefield of unintended consequences. And it even sees battles in which neither of two diametrically opposed forces are wrong. It…
Forum: The trouble with renos okayed on the nod
There are a few quibbles this week about changes to common property and what happens if they are made without proper by-laws. Now, in NSW at least, if you need…
Forum: ‘Free’ votes give developer total control
We have a few fascinating questions on the Forum this week but the most intriguing one concerns a new, staged development where the developer has managed to hang on to…
Noisy flooring flaws exposed by bodged reno
Here’s a story that will bring a smile to the faces of anyone who has ever suffered the thuds and thumps of an upstairs neighbour who has put down a…
Confusion rules: Design and Building Act explained
When it came to tightening quality control of building work, it was always likely that the new NSW Design and Building and Practitioners Act would have unintended consequences. The Act…
Podcast: Flooring flaws exposed in reno bodge
There’s a little bit of everything in this week’s podcast. We start with a story about how people who either ignore or don’t know by-laws and regulations (not to mention…
Forum: Rookie reno error and terrible tenants
We have an all-too familiar tale from Victoria (yay!) this week where an owner has decided to take out a load-bearing wall in his flat, in a small, older apartment…
Forum: Sounds of life too much for serial complainer
It may be true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but it’s also a fact that intrusive noise is in the ear of the listener. Anybody who…
Forum: Reno nightmare as upstairs flats combined
You can feel the sense of dread in one of our posts to the Forum this week. A builder has bought the top two flats in a small block and…
ACT bans renos in blocks where any unit is occupied
Just a day after announcing an extension to the Capital Territory’s Covid-19 lockdown, the ACT Government has banned all renovations in any apartment blocks where people are still in residence.…