Forum: Chair dismisses experts and NCAT
The phrase “autocratic chair” is so common in strata it’s almost a tautology. I’m guessing things haven’t improved much since Donald Trump showed the world that all you need to…
chair
Forum: BBQ madness and deadly plan for stray cats
I think the trendy word for it is “triggering”: a word that will instantly have a normally calm and placid person frothing at the mouth and chewing the carpet. For…
Forum: Just another 150 bricks (not) in the wall
It’s all too familiar… a couple of people get themselves elected to the committee and soon, instead of enforcing by-laws and strata law, they start making up the rules as…
PODCAST 60 – Retirees rule, Airbnb lose and flooring fights
This week on the Flat Chat Wrap we ask whether retired business people are the best or the worst committee members you can have. Based on this column, Jimmy and…
Flat Chat Wrap #38 – Mediation, revolution and crazy planning objections
This week the Flat Chat Wrap podcast is all about conflict and various forms of resolution … including revolution. First Sue Williams and I take a look at we take…
Roundup: Are you being locked out of cheaper power bills?
Are you being balked whenever you try to take advantage of some of the competitive offers from power companies? It seems some developers and a few not very smart strata…
One simple way to sack your strata chair
Strata stories are often like slapstick comedy – hilarious … provided you’re not the one lying face down in the custard. Recently Flat Chat fielded a question from a…
Roundup: Let’s hear it for strata’s unsung heroes
I was on the radio the other day and got a couple of calls from, let’s call them mature ladies, who live in small unit blocks and who have been…
Roundup: now with added Apples (OK … iPhones)
I am having great difficulty writing this, mainly because I have my fingers crossed. I think I have finally fixed the problem with iPhones, ipads and smartphones that meant you…
Roundup: Would you elect either of them as your EC chair?
In Britain they get to choose between being in and out of Europe, in America they get to choose between Trump and Clinton and we get … (drum roll) Malcolm…
Proxy pain as non-owner rules unit block
It’s a familiar scenario: someone gets on your strata committees and starts ruling the place on the highly dubious basis of whatever they want is what’s best for everyone. That…
Strata townhouses of horrors
If you read this originally in Domain in the SMH, you can read the original post HERE. We tend to think of the worst strata misery occurring in multi-unit high…