This week’s podcast takes a look at an area of strata life where strata managers could be breaking the law … because apartment-owning clients want them to. We’re talking about email addresses which, if they are part of your strata scheme’s records, should be available for inspection to all owners. But many owners – and […]

This week a Flatchatter doesn’t understand how her share of paying for all the windows in the building to be repaired is more that the quote she received for having her own windows fixed. What about the savings you should expect from a bulk contract?  Shouldn’t it be cheaper, not more expensive? Here’s the thing, […]

There comes a point in the life of every apartment when you have clear-cut choices – renovate your kitchen or bathrooms, or leave them exactly as they are in the vain hope that someday they will be treasured as prime examples of early 21st Century architecture and design. In our 20-year-old block, we have been […]

When we moved into our current building 20 years ago, there was a spate of mystery break-ins with minor thefts, but no signs of visible forced entry. One of the daily newspapers (remember them?) ran with the story, more of a rumour, really, of a Spiderman thief who was clambering up the outside of the […]

There’s a truism in strata that the people you want on your committee – smart, informed and energetic – are often too busy making money to pay their mortgages (and levies) to devote too much time to the building in which they live. Serving on a committee can be time consuming and a drain on […]

If an amendment to strata law passed by the NSW Upper House last week gets through, no apartment block in the state will be able to prevent owners from owning animals. Okay, it doesn’t mean you must have pets in apartment blocks, but if the law change is approved in the lower House – which […]

“You gotta own a piece of dirt,” the man said. No, he wasn’t a farmer.  In fact, what made this noteworthy was that he was in the business of selling apartments. If you decode his statement, he was saying that you must own your own home and, furthermore,  apartments don’t really count. It’s a typical […]

It’s a case of too many Ps on the pod this week when we discuss your participation, the Hyperbole Towers podcom, pet petitions and payment for strata committee members. Let’s get to participation first.  We want to hear your voices, literally, so send us a question or a suggestion for a discussion topic as an […]

Here’s a problem a lot of strata schemes would love to have. A frustrated Flatchatter has written to us about her pre-1974 apartment block that has about $100k in the sinking fund. Unfortunately, they also have windows that are badly in need of repair or replacement.  What’s the problem? Well, in older buildings, the windows […]

Fire alarms can go off for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with fire. It could be smoke from seriously burnt toast meeting an over sensitive alarm, but you’d rather have the fire truck arriving just in case, than them not turning up when there is a real conflagration. But then you […]

A decision by Airbnb to ban so called party houses has been welcomed by strata managers in New South Wales who say it should be backed up by stiff penalties and a rethink about how it can be applied to this year’s schoolies celebrations in NSW. And the Strata Community Association (SCA) warns that the […]

You could never accuse strata lawyer Amanda Farmer of standing still for too long. On top of being a very active and successful strata lawyer, she’s a founder of Women In Strata, and hosts the Your Strata Property podcasts and the popular Happy Hour live online chats. Now she’s going global with what she says […]

It’s here! The long-awaited podcom (podcast sitcom) set in a dysfunctional apartment block’s strata committee is live and ready for your ears. The premise of this audio comedy, Hyperbole Towers, is as simple as it’s believable. The strata scheme has, thanks to a stuff-up by the secretary, accidentally changed its by-laws so that they MUST […]

There’s a fine array of quirks, quibbles and questionable grey areas in this weeks Forum Roundup, although the Flatchatters asking the questions might be feeling more abused than amused. Firstly,  there’s the poor blighter in Melbourne forced to stay home while his neighbours have their apartment noisily renovated.  Can they do that, he asks? The […]

It’s fun, fun, fun till your daddy takes your modem away (to misquote the Beach Boys) this week in the Flat Chat Wrap. First we go behind the scenes of the much heralded and long-awaited (by me, anyway) Podcom – podcast sitcom – which we are now calling Hyperbole Towers. Why “Hyperbole?” Because every new […]

With all the various horror stories of what goes wrong when an apartment catches fire, you would never want to skimp on safety. But what if you were paying over the odds for safety inspections that were followed by upgrades that you didn’t really need but were  recommended by the same people who did the […]

More than 1300 pet lovers have signed up to a petition demanding that blanket bans on pets in strata be revoked, after only two days of it being online on the NSW parliament website. At least 20,000 signatures are required to force the issue being debated in Parliament. But but having achieved nearly seven percent […]

We cover a lot of ground in this week’s podcast … and by  “a lot of ground” we mean pretty much the whole planet. First, we take a look a the recent 60 Minutes report which examined the progress being made by NSW building commissioner David Chandler in trying to make sure no one in […]

There an annoying piece of nonsense that repeatedly comes up in strata – and nobody ever seems to learn. What happens is that there’s a fault in common property that causes damage in a unit. The owners corporation (or in this case, the body corporate) is saying the insurer is only going to cough up […]

Apartment owners battling to have combustible cladding replaced on their buildings have won a landmark legal victory – giving hope to the thousands more facing similar dangers, writes Sue Williams. And in a significant although not directly related move, the NSW Government has established an expert panel of building and construction specialists to help support […]