Supreme Court changes tack on legal cost deposits
There’s a growing trend in legal actions in Australia that has recently intruded into the strata area – litigants being asked to provide security for costs before legal action can…
From the Forum: Tribunal exposed as toothless tiger
I’m getting slightly ahead of the news here, but by the time you read this there will probably be a piece online in the Sydney Morning Herald about the massive…
PODCAST: A star rating system for developers, builders … and residents
We have a friend called Royce who wouldn’t buy so much as a toothbrush without checking online to see if it was the best design (at the best price) for…
Forensic research – your best hope for not buying a high-rise lemon
With state planning ministers meeting this month, informed in part by a behind-closed-doors meeting of development “stakeholders” in NSW last week, you can be sure that building defects in their…
From the Forum: How do you deal with a dope who can’t cope?
There’s an interesting statistic that I never tire of quoting: no strata manager in NSW has ever been struck off for being really bad at his or her job. And…
PODCAST: When defect disaster warnings were covered up
In this week’s episode of the Flat Chat Wrap we look at the claims that the Opal and Mascot towers “disasters” are just the tip of a very large apartment…
Hidden dangers lurking in shonky strata records
This weekend, the Flat Chat column in the Financial Review will be about how to avoid buying an apartment in a dodgy building. In it, I discuss the importance of…
Race is on for states’ rental law reforms
Rental laws are a big issue in strata, with more than half of apartments being occupied by tenants, meaning half of apartments are owned by investors. That’s a lot of…
From the Forum: Confronting unfinancial committee candidates
Finances and, specifically, who’s behind in their levies are always sensitive topics at AGMs. You don’t want to embarrass your neighbours if they are doing it tough or maybe just…
Podcast: Everything you never knew about strata insurance
One of the big questions around the recent Mascot Tower problems was why didn’t the building insurance kick in, rather than the state government having to bail the owners corporation…
Murder and mayhem as Melbourne residents flee holiday rentals
It seems Airbnb (and other short-term holiday rental) stories are like buses – you don’t see any for a while then three come along at the same time. In their…
Crumbling blocks and cladding – it’s time for payback
The news that the NSW government is offering an open-ended, low-interest loan to the Mascot Towers owners corporation (body corporate), to allow them to pay for evacuated residents’ emergency accommodation,…
Mascot Tower fund no help for sofa-surfers or Airbnb hosts
NSW Fair Trading have released the details of their emergency accommodation package for residents evacuated from Mascot Tower and it includes a few interesting exclusions. For instance, people staying with…
Airbnb insurance alert lists five main dangers
The arrival of online short-term rental sites such as Airbnb and others, created a whole new landlord-tenant relationship: one where owners, or ‘hosts’, are encouraged to provide all sorts of…
From the Forum: Washing woes as perfumes pollute upstairs pad
There are periodically so many discussions and debates about laundry on balconies that the issue has it’s own section in the Flat Chat Forum. But it’s not the sight of…
PODCAST: Mascot Tower sinking but residents kept afloat by loans
This week in the Podcast we look at the Mascot Tower story and the apparently generous offer by Fair Trading to bankroll emergency accommodation for residents. They are saying it’s…
Boycott: Is it time we had an off-the-plan ban?
The advice from Owners Corporation Network spokesman Stephen Goddard could not have been more blunt: Don’t buy apartments off the plan. His actual words in an opinion piece in the…
Months of Vic misery ahead but Hawaii eyes Airbnb crackdown
Victorian apartment residents have at least another 20 months of disruption to deal with – probably more – according to a response we received from the Government there about any…