Forum: Back-to-school daze for Qs and As
A strange thing happens on Flat Chat around this time of year. Actually, it’s not that strange – it’s related to school holidays, and makes perfect sense. I’m guessing our…
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Forum: Back with a brand new year screamer
Ah, we’re back with a bumper post bag chock full of all the odds and ends (some of them very odd) of strata life. There are some perennial favourites –…
How to curb your levies but keep the quality
A few weeks ago we looked at the fancy additions to your apartment block that may be inflating your levies through running and maintenance costs. But there are many ways…
After the deluge: when mould takes hold
With impeccable timing, given the OCN webinar on waterproofing today (Wednesday, April 6), here’s a Sydney Morning Herald Lifestyle section report by Sue Williams about how mould can come into…
Is this the answer to unfair water bill sharing?
One of the careless consequences of apartment developers’ cost-savings, especially in many older blocks, has been the single communal water meter that sees your water bills shared on the basis…
Forum: Is it easy to split our strata scheme?
Back in the bad old days of strata, developers would stack unit entitlements on to average-sized apartments, and steer them away from commercial units, like shops, and penthouses. Unit entitlements…
Dogs that love to swim and dry drowning dangers
The chances are that dogs are not allowed in your communal apartment block swimming pool, and they certainly wouldn’t be welcomed by some of your neighbours. But that doesn’t mean…
Steamed up about new hot water meters
Are your hot water bills individual or collective? Do you pay depending on how often you shower or your unit’s size and number of rooms? Could you, for instance, be…
Green is good – it doesn’t need to be perfect
There’s a common misconception that apartment blocks must be more environmentally efficient than stand-alone housing. Having all those people living in a building with the same physical footprint as a…
Waterfix saving strata blocks tens of thousands
Is your strata block pouring money down the drain (almost) literally? Sydney Water claims its Waterfix Strata efficiency program is saving 75 Olympic sized swimming pools and close to half…
Roundup: Mystery tapping had a criminal cause
Tap, tap, tap. The sound had been driving neighbours mad. Every night from midnight for several hours, the people in one of the top floor flats would come home and…