Should cleaner have to deal with owner’s dog poo?
Our first post in this week’s roundup illustrates precisely why I would never live in an apartment block that didn’t have CCTV at least covering the front door and foyer.…
Survey aims to challenge suspect Qld strata laws
Before the state elections in Queensland last year, the state’s Deputy Premier Steven Miles invited the Unit Owners Association of Queensland (UOAQ) Committee to contribute to a legislation review regarding…
Are online and pre-votes the new proxy farming?
As NSW apartment residents think about what changes they would like to see in strata law, and some of us dive into the deep dark waters of the online consultation…
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…
Forum: Unfinancialized by a sneaky strata manager
One of the suggestions that I made in my overly lengthy submission to the strata law consultations was that seriously incompetent strata managers should face serious penalties, including potentially being…
Podcast: Which apartment tribe do you belong to?
Do you know what your strata-living tribe is? Are you economically engaged, young and jobless or under-employed, battlers, established owners, downsizers or even public housing tenants? Professor Bill Randolph of…
Law change survey leads to our strata manifesto
This week, I slipped down the ultimate strata rabbit hole – NSW Fair Trading’s consultation questionnaire in which they invite us to tell them how we think strata laws could…
Council where Company Title was compulsory
You may find this hard to believe but there was a local council in Sydney which, until a couple of years ago, would not give planning approval for two-unit strata…
Forum: Landlady dives in before tenant has left
When does a residential lease end? According to the standard lease (in Victoria) it’s on the date when the lease expires, unless a different arrangement is agreed. According to Tenants…
Podcast: What a great year … for pets and renters
This week’s podcast may be the first of 2021 but 2020 doesn’t get away that easily. Last year will be remembered in global politics as the year of Brexit, Trump,…
Closures mask possibilities of sharing facilities
We received a plaintive “please explain” on the Flat Chat website recently. A reader wanted to know why their swimming pool and spa remained resolutely closed when the rest of…
Forum: resident vents over neighbour’s scents
Sometimes the dumbest problems in strata are cause by the simplest, most innocent actions … usually allied to people not thinking things through. Take Flatchatter Wangdang whose small block has…
Building pressure as more developers cut and run
A story in the Sydney Morning Herald last week should have sent an unseasonal chill through the corridors of NSW Fair Trading and the whole of the state Government. In…
Podcast: Fun and games as the Wrap takes off
OK, stop, relax, breathe. We’re not taking a break these holidays so much as easing our collective foot off the gas We thought that, rather than drag someone out of…
Our stressful year of strategic strata living
Covid or no covid, it’s been a tempestuous year in strata in Australia. From a win for pet owners in NSW to dubious stats from Tasmania, there’s been plenty to…
Bathroom blues swept away by sea of greens
Bathroom Chronicles, Part 12 Enough of this whingeing – we love our new bathrooms. Why the complaints? Maybe we were too close to it and saw the sausages being made,…
Forum: Can I be sued over a climb and fall risk?
So, you’re living in a block where the powers that be don’t want to spend any money on anything. Trouble is, it has lovely old iron lace balustrades on which…
Block party planning and the vax of the matter
There’s an old saying: “if you want to make God laugh, tell him you have a plan.” When this column appeared in the Australian Financial Review last week, it opened…