Back chatting on the ABC with James Valentine
For longer than either of us can remember, James Valentine used to invite me on to his Afternoons radio show to talk about strata, writes JimmyT. People would call in…
smoking
Forum: Smoke signals and mixed messages
It’s amazing when you think how much we used to tolerate smoking, as if it were a God-given right. But these days you are increasing likely to find that not…
Forum: Can we share power to save money?
There has been a trend over the past few years for blocks that had one electricity supply, who then shared the costs according to unit entitlements, to install separate meters.…
Light up! Why states won’t ban balcony smoking
The recent win by NSW apartment dwellers over their balcony smoking neighbours sent a puff of panic through strata smokers and their barbecuing brethren. However, nicotine addicts need not have…
A funny thing happened on the way to the podcast
OK, I admit it – we’ve been in holiday mode. Could we have cobbled together a podcast on Sunday morning after New Year’s Eve (or Hogmanay, as we call it…
Smoke drift battle exposes NCAT’s farcical flaws
The recent Sydney Morning Herald story about a couple who – at the third attempt – won a case to get their neighbours to stop smoking on their balcony may…
Podcast: No pets, smoke, airbnb hosts or excuses
This week the pod is lighting up (but not inhaling) the smoking ban placed on a Queensland apartment resident who’s been ordered to take her habit inside and off her…
Too-hard basket smoked out by duty-of-care ruling
There’s an interesting side issue to the Queensland smoke-drift case resolved at a tribunal in December last year. And it could spell the beginning of the end for the “too-hard…
Is this the last gasp for Qld balcony smokers?
Balcony smokers in Queensland could be forced to take their habit indoors after a ruling by the state’s Body Corporate Commission that an apartment resident must smoke inside her unit…
US city bans smoking in apartments – but not pot
Councillors in one of America’s largest cities have voted to ban smoking cigarettes and vapes in apartments – but not marijuana. According to stories in the online versions of the…
From the Forum: Wired up for a power struggle
We tend to think of apartments as being shiny and new … but there are still a lot of old blocks out there that have been patched up and held…
Flammable cladding report makes chilling viewing
Did you see Four Corners on the ABC this week? It was all about the dangers of inflammable cladding and how they’ve been around for two decades. You will be…