FLAT CHAT WRAP

In this week’s podcast we ask leading strata lawyer David Sachs to run the rule over some of the questions in our Forum.For instance, can the owners corporation charge Airbnb hosts the difference if insurers increase premiums because there are short-term holiday lets in the block?Is it okay to have a paper only AGM with the committee elected by pre-meeting electronic votes?Who pa

This week on the Flat Chat Wrap we get a glimpse behind the scenes as NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler is a guest at a “town hall” meeting for members of his team.In it David outlines some of the Building Commission’s achievements over the past five years, including the creation of a “defects library” so that certifiers, owners corporations and eventually universi

The tax office is coming after double-dipping landlords who claim all sorts of things they shouldn't, or just claim for stuff the wrong way.And what about levies? It turns out some are tax deductible and others aren't. But which?By the way, in the podcast we say 86 percent of owners who use tax agents get their returns wrong, in fact the ATO says the majority of investors make mist

A slightly shorter but more pointed podcast this week as Sue reports on plans to demolish two affordable-rent apartment blocks and replace them with one luxury block with fewer, but presumably high-end apartments.It's another potential blow to the supply of affordable housing in desirable areas. City of Sydney have said “no” so the developers have appealed to the Land and Envir

This week we take a swing at polarising polititicians who are hoping to fire up the Nimbys against medium-density housing.They know it's what the state needs, they know it will help resolve the housing crisis, they don't have a viable solution, but hey, if it means they can get a few more votes in marginal constituencies, to Hell with the homeless.Then we go back to the future with

The Podcast takes a musical twist this week when we discuss the ear-bending plight of residents of four apartment blocks in the Sydney suburb of Meadowbank who have been subject to an opera singer practising his scales for 90 minutes every Sunday.How bad can it be? The perp is clearly talented and may even think he’s doing his neighbours a favour by standing on his balcony beltin

This week’s podcast is mostly devoted to embedded networks, what they are, why they can be good or bad, and what you can do to make them work for your strata scheme. To that end, we chat to Joseph Arena of Embedded Networks Arena, a company that will analyse your embedded network contracts – e.g. for energy and hot water systems – and tell you how you can get a better deal.Th

The only story in strata in the past week has been the decision by Building Commissioner David Chandler to hang up his hard hat and retire in August. So we thought the time was right to look at what he has achieved, the challenges he's faced - like being encourage by his then Minister to have a sit-down with a very dodgy developer - and the legacy he leaves behind for his successor

This second part of Lawyer In The Hotseat opens with an apology for promising a discussion on ebikes in last week's podcast, forgetting that it's actually in this, the second part (promise).Otherwise our discussion with strata lawyer David Bannerman covers renovation by-laws and the value of by-laws that would stand up if challenged at a Tribunal but send out a signal about what is

As promised, this is the first part of the recording where JimmyT fires questions at leading strata lawyer David Bannerman.Topics include:Does your strata manager have to give you access to the strata roll (including other owners' email addresses)? And what do you do if they don't.What are the new strata laws all about?What do you do about do-nothing strata committees.All this and