Our stressful year of strategic strata living
Covid or no covid, it’s been a tempestuous year in strata in Australia. From a win for pet owners in NSW to dubious stats from Tasmania, there’s been plenty to…
by-laws
Forum: ‘No-pets’ by-laws dead so bans are bogus
While some strata schemes struggle to deal with the fact that their “no pets” by-laws have been rendered obsolete by the recent NSW Court of Appeal ruling, others seem to…
Podcast 101: Pets and some post-Covid plusses
With most of the worst of the pandemic behind us here in Australia – or, at least, the first and hopefully the last wave of infections – we thought we’d…
Podcast 100: Upside of a stairlift stand-off
There are two major strands to this week’s podcast. The first stems from a question raised in the Flat Chat Forum, about an apartment owner who wants to install a…
Podcast 97: Renovation – best-laid plans (and tiles)
It’s renovations all the way in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap as we chat about a Forum post asking what can be done about a disastrous and unauthorised renovation, now…
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,…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
Forum: When ‘she’ll be right’ is oh so wrong
That old chestnut of who is responsible for repairs done on a nod and a wink rears its ugly, unloved head again in this week’s Forum. A Flatchatter writes that…
‘Dream’ bathroom project: the nightmare begins
There comes a point in the life of every apartment when you have clear-cut choices – renovate your kitchen or bathrooms, or leave them exactly as they are in the…
Strata law change would expunge no-pets by-laws
OK, it’s not quite making pets compulsory in strata schemes, but if an amendment to strata law passed by the NSW Upper House last week negotiates its final hurdle, no…
Forum: $100k in the kitty no window of opportunity
Here’s a problem a lot of strata schemes would love to have. A frustrated Flatchatter has written to us about her pre-1974 apartment block that has about $100k in the…
Todd Squad unleashed on dog ban unit block
Star of stage musicals like the Boy From Oz, and former Dancing with the Stars judge Todd McKenney has weighed into a Sydney pensioner’s battle to keep his greyhound after…
Time Fair Trading and NCAT were sin-binned
It’s been a while since I said this – and it’s something I should put in my diary for every three months or so – but isn’t it time the…
Podcast 76: Pet bans, live crabs and gov-love for holiday rentals
There’s plenty of variety in this week’s forum, from pets to concieges, and from tourism promotions to a survey that suggests lower-income individuals and families do it toughest in apartment…