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	<title>FLAT CHAT</title>
	<link>http://www.flat-chat.com.au</link>
	<description>How to survive and thrive in apartments, townhouses and strata units</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:37:04 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Low levies lurk</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Levies are generally pretty fair:  the more valuable your apartment, roughly, the more you pay  &#8230; unless the developer decided selling premium apartments was easier with lower levies attached. QUESTION: I have just discovered that that I am paying significantly higher strata fees than other units in the block the same size as mine, and [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.flat-chat.com.au/?p=1097</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Short term gain</title>
		<description><![CDATA[QUESTION: What do I need to be aware of if planning to rent out an apartment as a short term rental? I am thinking of purchasing a unit for partial personal use, and partial short term rental for tourists. Would I be in conflict with strata or other laws? &#8211; Shorty, Sydney ANSWER: Many apartment [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.flat-chat.com.au/?p=1094</link>
			</item>
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		<title>Pros (and cons) on EC</title>
		<description><![CDATA[They need no training in, knowledge of or even interest in the law that governs their actions, yet they are controlling budgets that can run to several million dollars per year.   They can range from committed, community-minded professionals to a collection of clowns, crackpots, despots and busybodies. These are the executive committees of Australia. Let&#8217;s [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.flat-chat.com.au/?p=1082</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Slammed by soaring rent</title>
		<description><![CDATA[QUESTION:  I have been renting my apartment for five years from people who left me alone and never put the rent up. However, they recently got a managing agent who&#8217;s sent me a notice  telling me my rent is going up by about 20 percent. I know I&#8217;ve had an easy run without any rises [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.flat-chat.com.au/?p=1079</link>
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		<title>Whinge and win</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s not often you get rewarded for speaking your mind but the City Futures Research Centre at the University of NSW is offering $250 Coles Myer gift cards to four lucky participants in their latest survey. As part of a two-year research project into how strata schemes are run, they are inviting members of executive [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.flat-chat.com.au/?p=1073</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Swept away by new broom</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The most common complaint about small apartment blocks is that nothing ever gets done.  Then along comes somebody who&#8217;s determined to shake things up &#8230; whether they are allowed to or not. QUESTION: Our four-apartment block has been trundling along OK but two new people have bought in and one of them is taking over, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.flat-chat.com.au/?p=1070</link>
			</item>
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		<title>Rough with the smooth</title>
		<description><![CDATA[QUESTION:  I asked my letting agent for a new carpet because the current one is old and worn &#8211; I think it was the original one they put down when they built the place. Now I&#8217;ve seen samples of the one recommended by the agent and it&#8217;s horrible rough industrial stuff like you&#8217;d put in [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.flat-chat.com.au/?p=1066</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Send in more clowns</title>
		<description><![CDATA[One of the longer-running sagas in this column a couple of years ago was about a selfish owner in a strata block who wanted to enclose their car space, meaning the person parking next to the space couldn&#8217;t open their car door. Some clown at the Consumer Trader and Tenancy Tribunal had ruled that adjoining [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.flat-chat.com.au/?p=1062</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Pet by-law bites</title>
		<description><![CDATA[QUESTION: My building has just passed a new by-law that says all tenants must have the written permission of their landlords before they can have a pet.  However it also says the Executive Committee can&#8217;t unreasonably refuse to give permission. I think it&#8217;s unreasonable of them to ask me to get permission from the landlord [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.flat-chat.com.au/?p=1059</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Putting the @ in strata</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Isn&#8217;t it odd how people will queue all night for the latest i-thingy, can&#8217;t wait to reveal their personal details on antisocial networking sites and can&#8217; t bear to spend more than a minute not tweeting or emailing the inanities of life to their friends. Yet, when it comes to apartment living and being part [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.flat-chat.com.au/?p=1056</link>
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