Forum: Ctte member gets paid for ‘strata training’
In these days when conspiracy theories can almost lead to the overthrow of the “greatest democracy in the world” we have to be careful not to fuel the fires of…
forum
Forum: Something shady in manager’s offer of help
There’s a sad and slightly creepy story from Tasmania this week – and it’s all about how some people haven’t quite got to grips with the concept of strata even…
Forum: How you can lose even when you win
The headline on one of our posts this week, says it all: “It’s as if I’m paying to sue myself.” The situation is pretty common. The strata committee takes an…
Forum: Should cleaner have to deal with dog poo?
Our first post in this week’s roundup illustrates precisely why I would never live in an apartment block that didn’t have CCTV at least covering the front door and foyer.…
Forum: Unfinancialized by a sneaky strata manager
One of the suggestions that I made in my overly lengthy submission to the strata law consultations was that seriously incompetent strata managers should face serious penalties, including potentially being…
Forum: Spend nothing, do nothing, stay in power
There’s an element of strata living that many people find frustrating if not infuriating. It can probably be best described as a symbiotic relationship between a strata manager who wants,…
Podcast: Crazy questions, architects with answers
We turn back the clock – but just a little – for this week’s podcast when we look at the weirdest and wackiest questions asked and problems presented on the…
Forum: Owner in dispute blocked from election
I often wonder where some strata managers get their ideas – it certainly doesn’t appear to be from professional training. Take the case of our Flatchatter who is in dispute…
Forum: High anxiety and double-dip voting
There’s an intriguing conundrum in the Forum this week. An owner in a small walk-up block wants to install a stairlift – one of those chairs that takes older or…
Forum: Space invader demands squatters rights
It’s amazing how often this old chestnut comes up and it reminds me of friends who had a “creative” young chap move into their small 1930s walk-up and announce he…
Forum: Window repair costs don’t add up
This week a Flatchatter doesn’t understand how her share of the cost of having all the windows in her building repaired is more that the quote she received for having…
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…
Forum: Cheap insurance leaves owner under water
There an annoying piece of nonsense that repeatedly comes up in strata – and nobody ever seems to learn. What happens is that there’s a fault in common property that…
Forum: Are these rules for Covid-19 or Airbnb?
Just after we locked off the Forum Roundup last week, we received a post listing a litany of unfair restrictions the poster claimed had been snuck in under cover of…
Forum: Car cable-eating rats in the too-hard basket
We’re taking a deep dive into the too-hard basket of strata committees this week, starting with one that says there’s nothing they can do about an infestation of rats, partly…
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…
Forum: Parking madness and untraceable tenants
Apologies for leading off on parking issues two weeks in a row but this one is such a doozy that it has even made it to our podcast. The problems…
Forum: At wits’ end with nasty neighbour campaign
There’s a smorgasbord of strata strife in this week’s forum but the story that stands out for me is the tenant who’s being targeted by a couple of owners who…