Tenants can take OCs to NCAT over defects
Tenants have the legal right to take their owners corporations to a NSW Tribunal to force them to fix faults in common property, an NCAT Appeals panel has ruled, but…
tribunal
Podcast: Petinos, pets and petty squabbles
There we were, all set with a podcast on David Chandler’s resignation in the can, when we heard that NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet had invited Fair Trading Minister Eleni Petinos…
Losers pay: Special levies mandatory for NCAT cases
Listen up all you litigious committee members! We have discovered something via the Flat Chat Forum that should make every strata committee in NSW think long and hard before they…
Podcast: Will data diving replace tenant checks?
A couple of weeks ago we received a press release from a company called Equifax who are a data analysis company that specialises in credit checks, among other things. Those…
Forum: Lift repair plans come crashing down
QUESTION OF THE WEEK: You know things have come to a sad state in a block when the only way forward on a long-running and contentious issue seems to involve…
High cost of choosing wrong Tribunal tactics
Anyone heading for a hearing at NCAT who is considering “Trumpifying” their case by overloading the tribunal with documents, denying known facts to confuse the issue, and digging their heels…
Airbnb by-law bounced over fob-cancelling clause
A Sydney apartment complex has had its entire “no-airbnb” by-law rescinded after an appeals tribunal confirmed two clauses in the four-page by-law were invalid. The first clause would have allowed…
Pet hates and petty issues ‘clogging Qld tribunals’
Strata schemes pursuing trivial issues such as trying to ban pets from lifts or doormats from lift lobbies are clogging up the adjudication system in Queensland, says the state’s main…
Forum: When strata donations are illegal
Suppose you have a committee or a chair who’s passionate about some issue related to apartments – something like Airbnb or pets or anything that’s likely to get the political…
Podcast: Dogs banned but NCAT says OK to cats
There’s a few differences in this week’s podcast from previous editions. For a start, Sue is on the other end of a Zoom call as she takes advantage of easing…
More pet turmoil as NCAT backs no-dogs by-law
The endless pets-in-apartments saga took another twist last week when a tribunal ruled that a no-dogs by-law was acceptable, even though last year the NSW Court of Appeal decreed that a…
Forum: How you can lose even when you win
The headline on one of our posts this week, says it all: “It’s as if I’m paying to sue myself.” The situation is pretty common. The strata committee takes an…