FLAT CHAT WRAP

Are you stuck at home because state borders aren't as open as they want us to think, or you can't go anywhere until your covid test results come out? Maybe you're self-isolating because someone in your family went to a herd immunity superspreader party. Or you just don't feel like running a gaunlet of unmasked festive huggers. Perhaps you're stuck in a traffic jam on your...

It was Monday morning and we had just finished editing the podcast when we got the word that NSW had a new Fair Trading minister. Meetings are cancelled, lunch is postponed, and schedules are re-drawn  for the simple reason that this is, in our world, a big deal. Eleni Potinos may have been a media footnote in the cabinet reshuffle instigated by NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet this week, but for us...

If there is one person in the strata sphere who’d say Building Commissioner David Chandler is not the Strata Messiah, it would be the commissioner himself. As we discuss on this week‘s podcast, he cringes at every mention of himself as some sort of saviour, constantly deflecting all the abundant praise he gets onto his team. They no doubt deserve all the kudos they can collect, but Jimmy wonders i...

With two major chunks of strata legislation landing last week – Victoria’s new laws and NSW’s proposals for a revamp of theirs – we pick the bones out of the plans and read their entrails for signs of what’s in store in the future. As usual, there are a few significant changes plus much tinkering around the edges, in both areas, but it’s what the perceived need for these new laws reveals that’s mo...

This week a massive review of NSW strata laws landed in Parliament and it’s given us a lot to talk about … perhaps a little too much. As you will see from this story, there are proposals about educating committees, defining what their members do and making it easier to sack individual members. There are suggested rewrites for the rules on pets and assistance animals, so that you don’t force vision...

This week in the Flat Chat Wrap podcast we take a deep dive into the strata managers’ code of ethics. We touched on the topic in the Forum last week and its worth revisiting as the NSW  branch of the Strata Community Association is about to officially launch its state government-approved Professional Standards Scheme. The SCA (NSW) Code of Ethics underpins its professional standards and the built-...

In the latest Flat Chat Wrap, listeners (and readers) get a preview of this week’s Fin Review column which will examine the issue of access to other owners’ email addresses. Do secretaries’ and strata managers’ oft-stated desire to maintain owners’ privacy sometimes stem from not wanting ordinary owners to communicate? How do you balance the benefits of open communication with the risk of being bo...

In the same week that we get a new property services commissioner in NSW we hear that the first building construction certifier in NSW has been been sin-binned for a year (at least).  What's the connection? With the new commish appointed to do to real estate agents and strata managers what David Chandler has been doing to the building industry, maybe he too will be kicking ass and taking name...

This week in the podcast we take a long, hard look at the proposals – well advanced, it must be said – for every strata scheme in NSW to register all their vital statistics on the state’s new Strata Hub. What kind of information will they want and why do they want it?  And what happens if old Geoff, the rusted-on secretary in Flat 4b, forgets to fill in the form or just doesn't think it appli...

Exactly who gets to view the recording from your strata scheme’s CCTV cameras?  That’s a topic that’s been keeping us occupied on the Flat Chat Forum and now gets an additional airing on the podcast. Can your strata scheme limit viewings to the strata manager or committee members? Aren’t there privacy issues involved?  And what about those who want to look at the recordings for nefarious purposes....

In this week’s podcast we hear the voice of defect rectification in NSW as David Chandler takes to the airwaves to explain why two different surveys have revealed that about half of the apartment blocks built in the past 15 years in NSW have serious defects. And, in extracts from a session he shared with JimmyT on the James Valentine  Afternoons show on ABC 702, we hear what he’s already doing to...

The Flat Chat Wrap podcast covers a lot of ground this week, from the state-wide easing of covid restrictions in NSW (but not in Victoria) to a little local difficulty with window tinting. NSW’s “Freedom Day” gets a lot of attention, as you’d expect, and we address the issue of whether or not we still need to wear masks on common property. Jimmy compares figures with the UK that suggest, even with...

We cover a lot of ground in this week’s podcast, from local pandemic panics to global warming and the potential "scary" effect of political inaction on your mortgages. First up we look into pro and anti-vaccine passions and the desire in some strata schemes to prevent unvaccinated residents from accessing communal facilities. As this story also discusses, is it fair, legal or even desira...

We have something of a star guest on this week’s podcast. Sue Williams, our regular co-host, has allowed us to dip into her recordings of her interview with Building Commissioner David Chandler so you can hear the voice of the man who is turning strata development in NSW on its head. And it has just occurred to me that some search engines might have brought Friends fans here, attracted by the name...

Is it a series of cover-ups or just another run of cock-ups? Either way NSW Health is making a mess of its covid alerts when it comes to apartment blocks. Whether it’s deciding not to let us all know that there are major outbreaks in public housing schemes – and asking residents not to tell anyone about it – or not alerting neighbours in privately owned strata blocks that there are cases in their...

As we edge ever closer to relief from our various lockdowns – and the inevitable spike in infections that will follow before vaccinations fully kick in – the NSW government’s plan for apartment blocks is quietly gelling in the background. And, as detailed in this story, part of the plan to limit the spread as we transition to semi-freedom, will be to blitz any unit blocks where an infection pops u...

Forgive us for patting ourselves on the back this week but, having surpassed 20,000 downloads and listens to the podcast, I reckon we’ve earned a little self-indulgence.  Suffice it to say that the audience for our weekly ramblings is growing steadily, and that has to be good. This week we turn our attention to the extended moratorium on rental evictions and the compensation for landlords who redu...

In this week’s podcast we chat about a report which reveals that one-third of 500 unit blocks inspected in a survey had serious defects, from leaking bathrooms, to fire safety issues..And there’s the stomach-churning claim that some units face remediation bills that will cost more than half the purchase price of the apartments. We also look at a small scale developer who has been ordered by a cour...

There’s a lot to get through in this week’s podcast, not least the new regulations on pets in strata which replace the now defunct blanket bans on pets. Even so, Jimmy finds time to indulge in not one but two full-on rants. But first, we talk about noise, specifically from kids playing in and around strata blocks during lockdown. Is it even reasonable to ask parents to tell their kids to keep the...

How has apartment living in Australia changed in the past four years?  The answer is a lot, but still too little. This week, we celebrate our 200th column in the Australian Financial Review (and our 820th in all media).And at the risk of being accused of self-congratulation, it’s a good opportunity to look back on what has changed and what hasn’t in the past four years and beyond. It has to be sai...

This week’s podcast has placed a ban on the C-word … no, not that one, the other one that’s filling our news bulletins on radio and TV and clogging up our newspapers and online reports. Instead, we start off talking about pets and renters, courtesy of a guest spot Jimmy did on James Valentine’s Afternoons on ABC radio. We’ve snipped out his listeners’ contributions but we’ve left in the insights f...

We had a new PHO out last week – that’s a Public Health Order, not a Vietnamese noodle soup – and as we discuss in the pod, it’s more of a dog’s breakfast from NSW Health. Are we supposed to allow renovations in apartments when people are being told to stay inside and even work from home? Are cleaners essential workers? How about building managers? Does anybody in NSW Health realise that apartment...

On this weeks’ Podcast Sue Williams and JimmyT explore the differences if any that our current locked down, work-from-home life will make to the way we build and live in apartments in the future. Last week we were taking the mickey out of marketers promoting “zoom rooms” … but then we thought about it and agreed, if they were done properly, they could be great. Then we look at the Australian Build...

Covid kicks off the podcast again this week, unfortunately, but with both Sydney and Melbourne shut down it’s the first thing that springs to everyone’s  mind. However there are some new talking points – like the surprisingly handy Strata Covid Toolkit produced by the NSW government last weekend, which we highly recommend. Then, just when they’ve final acquired some Flat Chat Brownie points, the N...

This week’s podcast makes a brave effort to pretend life is going on as normal … and almost pulls it off. We talk about the new DNA for apartment blocks, or the Building Assurance Solution, to give it its proper name, which the NSW government says is going to help track down dodgy developers, just like forensic scientists catching criminals on TV dramas. Then we talk about a development in one of...