From the Forum: Rogue committee rides roughshod over rules
It’s been a while since we’ve had a forum post about a committee that’s gone “rogue” – making decisions without consulting other owners and awarding themselves all sorts of perks.…
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PODCAST: Mascot Tower crisis brings defects closer to home
For obvious reasons, our podcast this week is about the Mascot Tower crisis. We recorded the podcast before we were aware of the story in today’s Financial Review revealing that…
Faulty towers – hope for the best but prepare for catastrophe
It’s hard to know exactly how to respond to the chaos at Mascot Towers. If you haven’t heard, last weekend hundreds of residents were forced to leave a South Sydney…
From the Forum: Turmoil over sneaky cake-taker
It’s been a bit quiet on the Forum front, what with the long weekend and all. But the saddest story of the week is probably the smallest in terms of…
Podcast: Ghost flats a huge tax break … with added James Valentine
Since our last podcast took us to Russia, we thought we’d stay a lot closer to home with this week’s. A story in the Australian newspaper caught our eye, concerning…
Reasons why you should – and shouldn’t – get elected to your committee
Do you ever get the urge to stand for election to your strata committee? Are you convinced you could do a better job than the existing members? Do you want…
Cladding bills could cost owners a quarter of units’ values – report
Australian apartment owners in buildings fitted with flammable cladding face bills of up to one quarter of the value of their homes, according to a new report. And state governments…
From the Forum: Pool ban posts make headline news
Our Forum posts about the building that wants to ban children from its swimming pool has ruffled a few feathers. First of all there was a flurry of appalled and angry messages (which you can…
From The Forum: Broken door battle with a difference
An interesting yarn has come our way via our friends at the Owners Corporation Network. It seems relatives and neighbours in a block were concerned that one of the residents…
PODCAST: Apartment living in the new Russia … and a $120K email
A big chunk of this week’s podcast is taken up with discussing how worried we should be about the defamation case taken by the chairman of a small strata building…
Why ‘no-cause’ evictions are bad for everyone
When the NSW government brought in its raft of changes to tenancy laws at the end of last year, the headline grabbing issues were new provisions to protect the victims…
Scams and scandals from the ‘bad old days’
Looking back over that past 15 years or so of Flat Chat, it’s interesting to note the issues that have come and gone. A couple of years ago, arguments about…
Lannock offer to cladding blocks as lender backs off
The announcement that one of the country’s biggest non-bank mortgage lenders will refuse to finance the purchase of apartments known or suspected of having flammable cladding on or in their…
Strata email defamation leads to $120k damages
There’s a lesson for anyone who’s ever tempted to fire off an angry, sarcastic or frustrated email to their strata committee – a defamation case over emails has cost one…
From the Forum: Biometric blue as kids banned from pool
Oh my goodness! Every so often I think, sooner or later, most of the problems in StrataLand will have been resolved, everybody will know what they’re doing, all the questions…
PODCAST: Working out how to make the most of your unit block gym
Our article this week about the fabulous Parker rental apartment complex in Alexandria, Washington DC, got me thinking about the facilities that are intended to entice us to buy and…
Dog parks, virtual golf and club rooms – the future of apartment living
There is a growing division in the world of apartment living and it’s not, for a change, between owners and renters. It’s between the haves and the have-nots. There are…
From the Forum: Treasurer pumping cash for dubious rent of space
There are times when strata committee office-bearers get themselves into trouble for no good reason, like simply failing to keep their paperwork up to date. And there are others when…