Forum: Parking vigilante is breaking the law
Let’s be honest, if you’ve ever found someone else’s car in your parking spot, you’ll have been tempted just to park in behind it and leave it there, ignoring pleas…
Rents drop dramatically as apartment vacancies soar
There’s more bad news for apartment investors – which means good news for renters – as rents plummet and availability of units soars in Sydney and Melbourne. This is in…
Podcast: States’ split is rental as anything
This week, having survived a computer crisis on the home office front, we delve deeper into the differences between the way renters are treated in Victoria and NSW. In the…
Riding shotgun with our building commish
A couple of weeks ago, Sydney Morning Herald and Domain contributor Sue Williams accepted an invitation to see Building Commissioner David Chandler in action on a development site. How do…
Forum: Neighbour throws shade on plan to cut canes
What’s that thing they say about the squeaky wheel always getting the oil? In strata, it’s more likely to be the loudest voice that’s the only one heard. However, some…
Podcast: Meditations on a block of Wellness
In what turned out to be a fairly hectic week we hit a very welcome speedbump in the form of enforced rest and relaxation at a new apartment block launch,…
Tale of two states as ‘no fault’ evictions under fire
It’s been very much a tale of two cities (and states) for renters in Sydney and Melbourne this past week. As of last Sunday, Victorian tenants no longer have the…
RE ‘experts’ on better service exclude customers
If there was any doubt which side of the great strata divide Fair Trading is on – between those who make money from Real Estate and those who live in…
Party flats and the invisible airbnb blacklist
Party animals and horrible hosts beware! Breaches of the NSW holiday rental Code of Conduct are already being pursued and hosts and guests face being blacklisted – even though the NSW…
Forum: Storing trouble over parking spaces
There’s a point in every almost every strata dispute where everyone just needs to take a step back and consider the costs – socially and financially – of either backing…
Podcast: Life savings lost thanks to dodgy dealing
In this week’s Flat Chat Wrap we discuss the awful story about the young woman who put her life savings into a deposit on a flat in a block that’s…
Push to free strata from NSW Fair Trading
NSW Labor has launched a renewed push to take strata out of Fair Trading and into a separate Government entity, saying it’s evident that stakeholders don’t trust the current structures…
Your pet laws and by-laws, state by state
Recent re-interpretations and rulings on pet by-laws in NSW, not to mention much-needed updating of the basic strata laws behind them, have left a lot of pet owners scratching their…
Green ceramics counter curse of disposable fashion
When a university academic handed a property developer a small grey tile recently, and said “this is your son’s old school uniform” it marked the confluence of a creative vision,…
In the thick of it over Airbnb register
It’s all a bit Thick of It (or Yes, Minister for older readers) but every so often our government ministers have to front up and answer questions to a Budget…
Forum: Cubby house in a strata scheme garden
When strata neighbours start getting snarky with each other, the issues are usually fairly clear-cut. It could be parking in the wrong place, leaving garbage outside your front door or…
Podcast: Virtual commutes are transports of delight
Are you over working from home? Does your formerly perfectly adequate apartment now seem tiny. Is your kitchen table too high and your laptop screen too small? Are you one…
Building managers dodge contract limits bullet
Stories about incompetent or dishonest strata building managers are the stuff of apartment dinner party one-upmanship. Or should that be one-downmanship? To be fair, most strata and facilities managers are…