Archive for November, 2007

Myths and misconceptions

Monday, November 12th, 2007

What’s more important – saving the planet or looking neat and tidy?  It sounds like a no-brainer but Flatchat was at a forum organised by Willoughby council a couple of weeks ago where that issue was hotly debated.  Willoughby’s Director of Sustainability, Dr Hayden Washington, was speaking  about the many ways apartment blocks can do [...]

When owners grab common property

Monday, November 12th, 2007

Common property is a simple enough idea – every part of a strata building that isn’t specifically owned by one person is collectively owned by everyone.  But there’s always someone who thinks if they own a share of common property, they can treat it as if they owned it all.  QUESTION: One owner in our [...]

Tenants monstered by a mad manager

Monday, November 12th, 2007

 Usually we get owners writing to this column but tenants suffer just as much from strata maddies, if not more.  QUESTION: We have been tenants in a block of about 60 apartments for the past seven years and we love it here – or we did until a new caretaker-manager was hired.  Now I’ve been [...]

BBQ Burners Bite Back

Monday, November 12th, 2007

We are nothing if not adventurous at Flatchat Towers and a couple of weeks ago we dared to suggest that barbecues and balconies may not be a good mix. As we expected, this prompted a sensible and reasonable discussion of the subject. “What a f***ng joke…no bbqs in aus!!!!!” said the multi exclamating DM.  No, mate, [...]

Who gets first bite at the car park cherry?

Monday, November 12th, 2007

Parking mad  As more people own more cars and councils restrict the number of vehicle spaces in new buildings, parking is a constant source of irritation.  But who takes priority, even in older blocks – residents with more cars than spaces to park them, or visitors to their building?  QUESTION:  We are a 1970s block of [...]

Grab back your voting rights

Monday, November 12th, 2007

Our recent article on developers demanding proxy votes in strata unit sales contracts has stirred things up, with one reader writing to tell us they had backed out of a purchase on principle.  You can hardly blame them after the developer insisted on them signing away not only their own rights but also the vote [...]

Mum in a brand new slum

Monday, November 12th, 2007

The phrase “slum of the future” gets bandied around a lot – not least by yours truly – but if you think it’s an exaggeration, take a look at the case of a reader’s mother, a widow on a pension, who bought a brand new unit in Liverpool after her family home got too much [...]