FLAT CHAT WRAP

This week’s Flat Chat Wrap has a look at something we predicted a few weeks ago – that the knives would soon be out for Building Commissioner David Chandler, just as they were all those years ago for Police Commissioner Peter Ryan. Why? Maybe because he's been a bit too successful at doing exactly what he was asked to do - get rid of of a crooks and shonks in the property development industry...

Having braved the wilds of Scotland and the woes of Covid, we are back with a brand new Flat Chat Wrap podcast, with our usual mixture of optimism and, it must be said, the occasional bout of weary skepticism. The optimism stems from the plans for a new high-end apartment block that will bring owners together with key worker in affordable rentals, plus some social housing. And the remarkable thing...

Welcome to the second part of Lawyer In The Hot Seat, in which strata lawyer (and Flat Chat sponsor) David Bannerman invited us on to his webinar. This week, Jimmy asks and David answers your questions about the NSW strata information hub and whether it might deter people from taking office-bearer roles in strata committees. On short-term letting, David suggests that an over-crowding by-law may be...

Amid all the discussions on this website about strata law, regulations and by-laws, we spend a lot of time talking about the way things ought to be and the difference with how they really are. David BannermanEvery so often it helps to cut through all the wishful thinking and speculation to get some definitive answers and so we were delighted to be asked by David Bannerman of Bannermans Lawyers to...

The first thing that happens after a new government is elected is that the Prime Minister and the party divvy up the ministries. The next thing after that is that they look at what they have promised during the election campaign and work out how much of it they can or want to implement. In this week’s podcast we ask if the new Labor government’s commitment to co-owning homes with first-time proper...

This week on the Flat Chat Wrap, as we approach the election, we are looking again at the various parties housing policies and wonder what they really mean. We recorded this before the announcement that young people will be able dip into their Super to help fund the purchase of a flat or house if the Coalition holds on to power, and the revelation on ABC radio that they couldn’t find a single econ...

Imagine you are the chair or secretary of a strata scheme.  You can cope with fielding a reasonable number of messages via the strata manager or building manager. It’s a mixed bag, some of the messages are simple and straightforward, some are well-intentioned if occasionally ill-informed, and there’s the odd one that’s abusive and ignorant. It’s all part of the cut and thrust of strata living and...

Sometimes the fur flies at weddings, and things can certainly get catty between landlords and tenants but, as we explore in this week's podcast, a woman has taken things to a whole new level in an effort to get round restrictions on pets. This story about the woman who married her cat started in Sidcup, just outside London, and has gone around the world and back again. But Jimmy did some digg...

In this week’s podcast we dive into the exciting world of flat-sharing … something neither of us have done for at least 30 years. How different can it all be in the Third Millennium?  Well, for a start, we didn't have the internet, where you can advertise your flat or yourself, including pictures, to see if you may be a better match than just turning up at the door with a deposit. But there’s...

This week, we delve into the dark arts employed by real estate agents and property stylists to persuade you that an absolute lemon is, in fact, your dream “forever home.”How come that beautiful tapestry is on the wall of this humble abode? Why are all the lights on and the windows closed? Why are there three real estate agents from the same firm at a viewing of one relatively humble unit? We have...

It’s another bumper podcast this week with some topics revisited, some from the Forum and others that are fresh out of the Flat Chat hot cross bunfight oven. First up, we take a deeper dive into the case of the doctor who was denied the opportunity to charge up his electric car from common property power because … good question! You can read the dubious reasons given for sealing off the car park p...

A couple of weeks ago we received a press release from a company called Equifax who are a data analysis company that specialises in credit checks, among other things. Those “other things” include being asked by the NSW state government to establish its proposed ratings system for apartment developers which is, we probably all agree, a good thing. The main thrust of the press release was that Equif...

This week’s podcast discovers a new way of buying property – or at least putting down a deposit. The problem for many prospective home buyers is that, all the time they are saving for the deposit on a new home, prices keep rising so the amount they need to save gets more and so the property is always just out of reach. But we've heard about a new proposal that's been introduced where you...

We’ve plundered the Flat Chat Forum for talking points this week, but first we discuss an issue that’s come to Sue from one of her Domain readers. Did you know that if you buy an apartment off the plan and the finished unit varies from the contract design by more than 5%, you can ask for a discount or possibly even rescind the contract? But how about if the plan for the whole scheme has changed co...

Entitled, arrogant, ignorant and occasionally abusive – those are some of the accusations that have been levelled at the latest band of baddies to emerge in strata: downsizing Baby Boomers. Obviously, this doesn't apply to all Boomers - because we are members of that ageing club too. But, as we discuss in this week’s podcast, making the adjustment from being kings and queens in their own McMa...

One of the problems with preparing a fairly light-hearted podcast like the Flat Chat Wrap is that there are a lot of serious issues around that you just can’t ignore but you don’t want to trivialise. Right now the Eastern states are dealing with the immediate problem of devastating floods or their aftermath.  What does this have to do with apartment living? We hear about the smart thinking, fast-m...

They say strata is a world of contradictions and never has that been so obvious as this week when one report reveals a shortage of housing, most of which will need to be filled by apartments, yet one of our biggest and most highly regarded apartment complex builders has gone into voluntary administration at a time when apartment prices are rising. Is it because materials have gone up but the avail...

This week’s podcast is given over to one topic – but it’s a fascinating one: What are we going to do about Australia’s older apartment blocks? Sure, there’s been a lot of attention given to the blocks currently under construction or recently completed, with our special guest this week, NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler shaking up the whole industry by demanding work is up to standard or, ef...

It’s Airbnb (and Stays etc etc) all the way in this week’s podcast (sorry!) as we discuss the implications of Jimmy’s belated discovery that the Sydney-only by-laws banning holiday lets only apply to investor-owned apartments. Yes, resident-owners and even tenants can list their flats on Airbnb and any of the other platforms (preferably those that don’t destroy fond memories with insipid rendition...

There’s another very mixed bag this week but it’s mostly good news in these trying times. Up in Queensland, the tribunal there is chipping away at restrictive pet by-laws in a building called Trafalgar Towers where one resident was forced to carry her blind dog up 12 storeys to their home. The Body Corporate has now been told in no uncertain terms that the by-law is invalid and to get it off their...

This week the pod is lighting up (but not inhaling) the smoking ban placed on a Queensland apartment resident who’s been ordered to take her habit inside and off her balcony because her smoke is a hazard to the neighbour upstairs. There are so many aspects to this, not least that her block has a designated smoking zone and her committee has been rapped gently but firmly on its knuckles for declini...

This week the pod takes a deep dive into the murky waters of fire safety, how we ignore it at our considerable peril and how this essential part of our strata lives is ripe for exploitation by unscrupulous contractors. This discussion was prompted partly by the terrible fire in New York a couple of weeks ago when, it seems, doors left open during a relatively small fire allowed smoke to spread thr...

There’s an air of cynicism – or maybe it’s just weary experience – around this week’s Flat Chat Wrap podcast, but we only have ourselves to blame. Last week we were touting the potential for a mandatory strata management contract – like the residential tenancies lease in that the legal conditions would be fixed, but the financial terms would be variable – and realised we were joining a chorus of s...

Like a wayward teenager who stayed out too late, Airbnb is creeping back into our lives, hoping to avoid our parental wrath, but finding a less than loving reception waiting for it. As we discuss in this week’s podcast, the holiday/retirement town of Noosa, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, has had enough of badly behaved holiday renters’ shenanigans. In a few weeks the shire council there will brin...

This week on the pod we ask the question, if Strata doesn’t belong in Fair Trading, then where should it go? As Jimmy explains in this column (which also appeared as an op-ed in the Sydney Morning Herald) our brand-new Fair Trading Minister Eleni Petinos has also been given Small Business on which to attach her training wheels. So now strata isn’t just a part of a huge, rambling and largely unconn...