For years I have been struck by the irony of the connection (or lack thereof) between communication and community and how it seems to fall asunder at the doors of apartment blocks.If there was anywhere that not only needed an internal communications system – and probably contained higher than average numbers of people able to grasp the fundamentals – it would be modern apartment blocks.People have experimented with Facebook pages and dedicated websites – but as soon as the people who set them up...
Sep 24, 2019•29 min
We write and talk a lot about property developers in Flat Chat – not often in positive terms – but we rarely get the chance to hear their side of the story, at least, untainted by promotional spin for some new project or another.So it was a pleasure to sit down recently with Chris Johnson, CEO of the Urban Taskforce, and get his views on what is happening in the world of apartment development for the Flat Chat Wrap podcast.Chris is the former State Architect for NSW and Urban Taskforce represent...
Sep 17, 2019•39 min
Are you a locust or a bee? Those are the divisions appearing between residents in Australia as many of us move from the more acquisitive, self-centred lifestyle typified by the McMansion in the suburbs, to a more communal, sharing way of life that you increasingly find in apartments.In this week's podcast we talk to Chris Johnson, CEO of the Urban Taskforce, who predicts a more communal way of life as more of us move from houses into apartments.Chris is the former State Architect for NSW and Urb...
Sep 17, 2019•39 min
This week the Flat Chat Wrap podders look at the ridiculous cost of parking spaces, the new forms of flat-sharing and we finish off our chat with Jane Hearn about the proposed short-term letting register – and why Airbnb hates it so much.First up, JimmyT and Sue Williams talk about why parking spaces are no longer at such a premium (despite one that previously sold at auction for $260,000 coming up for sale).People who live near transport hubs don’t need cars as much as they used to and the flaw...
Sep 11, 2019•35 min
This week the Flat Chat Wrap podders look at the ridiculous cost of parking spaces, the new forms of flat-sharing and we finish off our chat with Jane Hearn about the proposed short-term letting register – and why Airbnb hates it so much.First up, JimmyT and Sue Williams talk about why parking spaces are no longer at such a premium (despite one that previously sold at auction for $260,000 coming up for sale).People who live near transport hubs don’t need cars as much as they used to and the flaw...
Sep 10, 2019•35 min
Just when you thought it was safe to dip your toe into the Airbnb discussion, it turns out the proposed new laws are not what they seem. The 180-day cap on whole-home lets can be extended by your local council, there’s a mysterious 21-night option that doesn’t count against the cap and Airbnb is gearing up to fight really tough fire safety regulations (which are fine by Stayz, by the way). This week’s podcast welcomes Deputy Chair of the Owners Corporation Network Jane Hearn who gives us a fasci...
Sep 03, 2019•30 min
Just when you thought it was safe to dip your toe into the Airbnb discussion, it turns out the new laws are not what they seem.The 180-day cap on whole-home lets can be extended by your local council, there’s a mysterious 21-night option that doesn’t count against the cap and Airbnb is gearing up to fight really tough fire safety regulations (which are fine by Stayz, by the way).In this week’s podcast JimmyT welcomes Vice-Chair of the Owners Corporation Network Jane Hearn who gives us a fascinat...
Sep 03, 2019•30 min
This week the Flat Chat Wrap podcast is all about conflict and various forms of resolution … including revolution.First Sue Williams and I take a look at we take a look at mediation and what it actually means. In NSW and Queensland, mediation is an obligatory precursor to asking for an adjudication at your state tribunal.In Victoria it kind of is too, but isn’t really. It’s called conciliation there, and is more of a recommended option than an obligation. How much it harms your case if you don’t...
Aug 27, 2019•24 min
This week the Flat Chat Wrap podcast is all about conflict and various forms of resolution … including revolution.First Sue Williams and I take a look at we take a look at mediation and what it actually means. In NSW and Queensland, mediation is an obligatory precursor to asking for an adjudication at your state tribunal.In Victoria it kind of is too, but isn’t really. It’s called conciliation there, and is more of a recommended option than an obligation. How much it harms your case if you don’t...
Aug 27, 2019•24 min
It’s a real mixed bag in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap podcast – finance, Airbnb and sneaky sex.Sue Williams and I start our dissection of the week’s strata news by looking at the suggestion that people suffering under building defects might get low-interest or even no-interest loans from the government.We reckon it’s better than nothing but it’s not enough. Anyone who has ever suffered through the agonies of realising you have defects in your building, then having to fight your developer to get th...
Aug 20, 2019•31 min
It’s a real mixed bag in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap podcast – finance, Airbnb and sneaky sex.Sue Williams and I start our dissection of the week’s strata news by looking at the suggestion that people suffering under building defects might get low-interest or even no-interest loans from the government.We reckon it’s better than nothing but it’s not enough. Anyone who has ever suffered through the agonies of realising you have defects in your building, then having to fight your developer to get th...
Aug 20, 2019•31 min
It would be fair to say that Flat Chat’s approach to apartment living and strata law over the years has been robustly non-academic. We use often cite anonymous sources and unverified reports to build a picture of all that is wrong with strata living (and many things that are right).Academic researchers, by contrast, meticulously record numerous interviews, often with clearly identified and authoritative subjects, referencing other studies and reports, to reach carefully considered conclusions.On...
Aug 13, 2019•34 min
It would be fair to say that Flat Chat’s approach to apartment living and strata law over the years has been robustly non-academic. We use often cite anonymous sources, anecdotal 'evidence' and unverified reports to build a picture of all that is wrong with strata living (and many things that are right).Academic researchers, by contrast, meticulously record numerous interviews, often with clearly identified and authoritative subjects, referencing other studies and reports, to reach carefully con...
Aug 13, 2019•34 min
If you live in apartments for long enough it’s almost impossible not to catch a glimpse into other people’s lives. Most of us look away, hoping that the same courtesy will be afforded to us by anyone inadvertently seeing more than they should.But sometimes curiosity gets the better of us and an innocent, accidental glance turns into a look that lingers longer that it ought.OK that's understandable , but then there’s out and out voyeurism, when someone spends way too much time spying on their nei...
Aug 06, 2019•26 min
If you live in apartments for long enough, at some point you're bound to catch a glimpse into other people’s lives. Most of us look away, hoping that the same courtesy will be afforded to us by anyone inadvertently seeing more than they should.But sometimes curiosity gets the better of us and an innocent, accidental glance turns into a look that lingers longer that it ought.But then there’s out and out voyeurism, when someone spends way too much time spying on their neighbours.It’s the latter th...
Aug 06, 2019•26 min
There’s so much doom and gloom around strata at the moment you feel you’re missing out if your apartment block isn’t on fire, falling down or both.So we’ve decided to lighten the load in this week’s podcast with a look at TV shows that were set in apartment blocks, especially Australian shows.And for that, there is no better person to sit at the Flat Chat microphone than producer, critic, writer, broadcaster, media podcaster and now cinema owner Andrew Mercado.Andrew is a total Number 96 geek, n...
Jul 30, 2019•26 min
There’s so much doom and gloom around strata at the moment you feel you’re missing out if your apartment block isn’t on fire, falling down or both.So we’ve decided to lighten the load in this week’s podcast with a look at TV shows and movies that were set in apartment blocks, especially Australian shows.And for that, there is no better person to sit at the Flat Chat microphone than producer, critic, writer, broadcaster, media podcaster and now cinema owner Andrew Mercado.Andrew is a total Number...
Jul 30, 2019•26 min
How would you feel if you suddenly had 50 to 100 strangers walking through your lobby every day, clogging up the lifts just when you are trying to get to work or when you come home?These are the fears raised by residents of two neighbouring buildings on Sydney’s North Shore (and discussed in our podcast) where the very loosely defined approval for commercial development inside a residential building means that, in one instance, what was intended to be a gym looks like it’s going to be an open pl...
Jul 23, 2019•30 min
How would you feel if you suddenly had 50 to 100 strangers walking through your lobby every day, clogging up the lifts just when you are trying to get to work or when you come home?These are the fears raised by residents of two neighbouring buildings on Sydney’s North Shore (and discussed in our podcast) where the very loosely defined approval for commercial development inside a residential building means that, in one instance, what was intended to be a gym looks like it’s going to be an open pl...
Jul 23, 2019•30 min
With defects on the minds of everyone in the apartment world, there’s a whole lot of finger pointing going on.Developers are saying engineers should be certified, strata owners say developers should be certified, and some people say anyone thinking of buying an apartment should be certified (but not in the same way).But it makes you wonder, when everything in our lives has some kind of rating, why don’t the people behind the biggest single purchases most of us will ever make have to compete for ...
Jul 20, 2019•30 min
In this week's Podcast, Jimmy Thomson and Sue Williams discuss why it is that we can get ratings and comparisons for just about everything we buy ... except the largest purchase most of us will ever make. And they float the idea of people being given (and losing) a licence to live in strata.We have a friend called Royce who wouldn’t buy so much as a toothbrush without checking online to see if it was the best design (at the best price) for his specific dental needs. He is so notorious for his ex...
Jul 16, 2019•30 min
We have a friend called Royce who wouldn’t buy so much as a toothbrush without checking online to see if it was the best design (at the best price) for his specific dental needs. He is so notorious for his exhaustive product checking that our group of friends refers to the process as “Roycing”.For instance, you say you’re thinking of buying a particular brand of new TV and someone says “Oh, have you Royced it?”We were reminded about that this week, after my piece in last weekend’s Australian Fin...
Jul 16, 2019•30 min
In this week’s episode of the Flat Chat Wrap we look at the revelation that the Opal and Mascot towers “disasters” are just the tip of a very large apartment block defects iceberg.Jimmy Thomson and Sue Williams have been writing about apartment block defects – and other, happier apartment-related issues – for more than 15 years.In this episode of the Flat Chat Wrap, Sue recalls the time more than a decade ago that a feature on defects almost cost her job, when a property writer with a close pers...
Jul 09, 2019•20 min
In this week’s episode of the Flat Chat Wrap we look at the claims that the Opal and Mascot towers “disasters” are just the tip of a very large apartment block defects iceberg.This comes as no surprise to JimmyT and Sue Williams, who have been writing about apartment block defects – and other, happier apartment-related issues – for almost two decades, meeting a response that ranged from complete lack of interest to virtual censorship.In this episode of the Flat Chat Wrap, Sue recalls the time 15...
Jul 09, 2019•20 min
Jimmy Thomson investigates four different kinds of insurance (including Airbnb) and why telling one little white lie about whether or not you were allowed to have short-term letting in your apartment could invalidate your cover.He's joined by Steve Tchepak, Acting Head of Underwriting at our sponsors CHU Insurance. ____________________________________________________ Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia. Find us on Facebook and Twitter and the Flat Chat website. Send ...
Jul 02, 2019•31 min
One of the big questions around the recent Mascot Tower problems was why didn't the building insurance kick in, rather than the state government having to bail the owners corporation out with emergency funding.The simple answer is that it looked very much like a building defect and that's not covered by ordinary strata insurance. So what is strata insurance - the compulsory one that covers the building and the common property, and is paid for by the Owners Corporation - and what does it cover?Th...
Jul 02, 2019•31 min
Confronted by images of residents of Mascot Tower evacuating the building, the NSW government has moved relatively swiftlly to plug the accommodation gap with a loan to the Owners Corporation to cover the cost of emergency billets for the owners and renters.As JimmyT and Sue Williams discuss in this week's podcast, the state government's loan may never have to be paid back, because they think they know what (and who) caused the structural damage and it's eminently possible it wasn't building def...
Jun 25, 2019•26 min
This week in the Podcast we look at the Mascot Tower story and the apparently generous offer by Fair Trading to bankroll emergency accommodation for residents.They are saying it’s a one-off, as they must. If NSW Fair Trading let it be known that they were in the market for payouts to help people with building defects, the queues of the duped and dudded would be longer than the lines for the new iPhone.The interesting aspect of all this is that Fair Trading are saying that the Mascot Tower may be...
Jun 25, 2019•26 min
Residents of the 130-plus apartments in the Mascot Tower apartment block in Sydney's South were evacuated over the weekend when cracks in walls and supporting beams suddenly widened. JimmyT and Sue Williams discuss what this means for the residents of this block and all the others built in Sydney to the same standards around the same time. And they come up with a proposal to at least stem the waves of panic and confusion the next time this happens as, they say, it surely will ... _______________...
Jun 18, 2019•19 min
For obvious reasons, our podcast this week is about the Mascot Tower crisis. We recorded the podcast before we were aware of the story in today's Financial Review revealing that the developer and builder of the property next door, as well as the local council, were already facing legal action because of disturbance caused by the construction of another residential tower in the adjoining lot.Anyway, our podcast explores a number of other issues, including what we can do to prevent this from happe...
Jun 18, 2019•19 min
