This column occasionally takes a pop at Big Bad Developers but there’s a breed that tends to slip under the radar – the small, independent, one-off developers who build small blocks of units, keep the best properties for themselves (and their families) and then run the block as if the whole building was theirs alone. [...]

Amid all the complaints I we get about Executive Committees being too hard to deal with, occasionally we come across one that’s being way too accommodating. QUESTION: Tenants in the unit next to mine have put in air conditioning without permission or even informing the owner of their unit. This goes against our bylaws but [...]

If there’s one issue that gets Flatchat readers’ goat it’s pets. Maybe it’s because one person’s devoted companion animal and surrogate child is another’s flea-ridden, noisy, smelly and unhygienic nuisance. The basic “model” by-laws say that residents can only have pets with the permission of the Owners Corporation or Executive Committee, but they also say [...]

When is an efficient and tightly run Executive Committee a powerful, corrupt and exclusive clique? When someone wants in but can’t get in, perhaps. When ECs work efficiently, with discussions informed and to the point, meetings take less time and more gets done. For those who give up their spare time – an increasingly rare [...]

Living underneath noisy wooden floors? That clattering of hooves you hear may just be an ill-informed strata manager running for cover. QUESTION: I live in a unit and the people above installed a noisy timber floor. My strata manager gave permission but never informed me – if I had been asked I would have definitely [...]