Podcast 75 – The future is right on our doorsteps
We seem to be so caught up in the day-to-day of avoiding or dealing with the coronavirus, so it’s refreshing to know that some people are thinking of a future…
OCN
New fire safety regs on strata webinar agenda
You guys are getting into the technology, big time. Apparently more than 200 strata residents took part in the Owners Corporation Network (OCN) webinar on Airbnb and short term letting…
Buy the by-law and say bye-bye to Airbnb
If you thought the battle to restrict Airbnb-style short-term rentals from apartment buildings that don’t want them was over in NSW, you may be in for a shock. The new…
D-Day looms for Airbnb apartment ban by-laws
D-Day for apartment blocks in holiday areas of NSW is just around the corner – where D stands for “Dump short-term letting”. On April 10, the new NSW strata regulations…
Opal chair reveals his year of dealing with disaster
It’s the kind of bad dream that has strata chairs waking up in a cold sweat; being thrust into the heart of a very public building disaster, with residents thrown…
The real deal for strata owners on James Valentine
I was listening to the ABC News Radio last Friday and an item came on about strata defects, flammable cladding and the state ministers meeting in Sydney. The news reader…
Flat Chat Wrap #23 – Airbnb code of conduct, developers go “crowd” and a horse in a townhouse (???)
Jimmy T and Sue Williams explore the latest developments in the strataverse … and come up with some very odd stories indeed.
Roundup: When ‘privacy’ is more important than unit block fire safety
I was gobsmacked this week to discover that Fair Trading have refused to even tell owners in the 400-plus buildings seriously affected by flammable cladding that there’s a seminar this…
Podcast: The link between holiday lets and high rise cladding fires
It used to be that when anyone talked about problems in strata, the perennial topics were the four Ps – pets, parking, parties (the noisy kind) and puffing (the smoke…
Resident owners’ report slams holiday letting laws
The peak body representing apartment owners in NSW has blasted the incoming short-term holiday letting laws as “excessively generous” to holiday letting hosts and a threat to the very nature…
Roundup – Row over Airbnb code of conduct
Don’t hold out too much hope for a short-term holiday letting code of conduct that’s actually going to help you keep the peace when Airbnb, Stayz and all the other…
Cracks showing as Fair Trading loses friends
Fair Trading, the unheralded and little-loved corner of the NSW department of Innovation and Better Regulation has always had its resources stretched to breaking point. It’s a vital service cursed…
OCN seminar to show the way through strata maze
We don’t need to tell Flat Chat readers that living in strata is complicated – you wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t already found that out for yourselves. And for…
ROUNDUP: Signs of the times as OCN gets a boost
Last week, after our story about the Owners Corporation Network, more than 500 of you went over to their website and had a look around. What a terrific response! Now,…
Roundup: The only independent lobby group for strata owners and residents
Every little niche of our society seems to have its own pressure group, lobbyists or even political party. So why don’t we? After all, according to the stats in the…
Frustration and fury – what we learned at the Strata Matters owners day
What a day! Just under 100 – and by that I mean exactly 99 – Flatchatters and OCN members turned up at the Strata Matters event on Saturday (March 10)…
Roundup: Seven tricky questions for the strata experts
OK, we’ve only a few days to go until Strata Matters (aka Flat Chat Live) the OCN owners day so I thought I’d give you a taste of the questions…
Strata madness – tell us what’s driving you crazy
Is something bugging you? I mean, is there anything about living in strata that’s REALLY getting your goat, curdling your blood and leaving your mustard uncut. At the OCN Strata…