Bathed in glory – smaller bath is bigger inside
Part 5 of the Bathroom Chronicles. It has taken me about 20 years to realise something fundamental about our bath. The reason it fits so perfectly into the slot behind…
Forum: Reno nightmare owner selling up
This week’s lead Forum post is a strata nightmare. It starts when a hobby renovator undertakes a major revamp of his flat, knocking down walls, adding staircases, shifting rooms, ripping…
Podcast 96: Pets, rents and new age steam trains
People who don’t care about pets in apartments shouldn’t switch off just yet, regardless of how bored you are with the whole issue. It has implications for everyone in apartments,…
Loneliness of the high rise residents left behind
Is there such a thing as “undercrowding”? There may well be with the centres of some of our biggest cities turning into ghost towns as Covid-19 restrictions bite, workers flee…
Pets in apartments: the dogfight is just beginning
The big question swirling around “no-pets” blocks in NSW, following the Court of Appeal’s decision against the Horizon building’s by-law last week, is “what next?’ And the answer is probably…
That sinking feeling and the insanity of vanities
Part 4 in the Bathroom Chronicles Choosing bathroom fittings is like starting an online dating relationship with someone who seems smart and stylish at first but turns out to be…
Forum: Garden gate-gate opens a can of words
It’s good to get a result in short order, especially as strata disputes can drag on for months, if not years. Last week a Flatchatter wrote to us that a…
Podcast 95: pet ban block, websites and a new book
The big strata news of this week stopped us in our tracks. The NSW Court of Appeals has overturned a decision by the strata tribunal (NCAT) which, earlier this year,…
Pet ban shock as Appeals Court erases by-laws
It was a decision that doubtless had the denizens of luxury Sydney apartment block Horizon spluttering into their sundowner G&Ts on Monday afternoon … and then checking their bank accounts.…
Budget missed a trick with strata (as usual)
Apartments weren’t so much an afterthought in the budget, as a hastily scribbled postscript. Sure there are additional incentives for first-time home buyers, and capital gains tax relief on granny…
Fancy tapware – is it just money down the drain?
I have to confess, I’ve never previously paid much attention to the shape of taps. But as D for Demolition Day approaches in our planned bathroom renovation, the style, function…
The Forum: Give bogus, bullying by-laws the boot
There’s a nasty by-law floating around various strata schemes these days – I say nasty because whatever its intent was, it’s having the effect of discouraging owners from challenging their…
Podcast 94: Tax shock and giving loans some credit
It’s a bit of a Budget special on Flat Chat this week, if only because we are talking about money. Specifically we are discussing the personal taxes that you probably…
Virtual vendors go online to combat covid concerns
As we emerge from lockdowns and self-imposed enforce isolation, Zoom-based meetings and working from home have affected our lives in strange and unexpected ways. And, according to this story in…
Your strata profits are taxable – and it’s personal
Last week we wrote about the clever apartment owners in Bondi who sold common property air space and converted unused storerooms to saleable units, all to fund a major upgrade…
Forum: What to do with a do-nothing committee
Sometimes you have to apply the Goldilocks principle to strata committees. Like the three bears’ beds, some strata committees are too hard, some are too soft and others – maybe…
Desperate resident gets the covid reno runaround
Living with renovations in your apartment block isn’t easy at the best of times, but we put up with it because, in the give and take of strata living, some…
Podcast: Now you can read it as well as listen
This week’s podcast is all about wheel-clamping, email privacy and the amazing legacy of the Sydney Olympics athletes’ village. But one of the biggest pieces of news this week is…