In this week’s Flat Chat Wrap, JimmyT and Sue Williams discusses the possibility of having free, or non-profit strata managers.Would it work, who would use the service and wouldn’t rich owners in boutique blocks just rort the system if it was done on the basis of the size of the building?Also they talk about the 100-year-old converted mansion where the owners ripped out a faulty alarm system and never got round to replacing it.And there’s the question of a tenant who has replaced the original ha...
Mar 03, 2020•18 min
Roughly once a month JimmyT drops into the ABC radio studios for a chat with James Valentine about strata and all the myriad related subjectsThis month they start off talking about charging electric cars in strata schemes but pretty soon the calls from JV's listeners start pouring in.One caller wants to know if the owners in two out of three buildings in the same strata scheme should be responsible for the cabling when the third building gets NBN fibre to the basement, rather than fibre to the n...
Feb 25, 2020•28 min
This week on the Flat Chat Wrap we ask whether retired business people are the best or the worst committee members you can have.Based on this column, Jimmy and Sue weigh the pros and cons of people who have experience and maturity, with the fact that they may also be used to getting their own way, are a little too keen to hold on to power when they get it, and often block the appointment of younger owners who want to make a contribution.Early retirees, with business smarts and energy to burn cou...
Feb 18, 2020•23 min
In this week’s podcast, with the East Coast states of Australia only just having survived the bushfires, we are now dealing with torrential rain and floods.Sue has contacted the big property insurers to discover an astonishing amount of damage claims had been lodged as early as Monday morning after the weekend storms.And we examine what can go wrong in apartment blocks despite a feeling of being “above it all”.‘This is when you discover how well your block really has been built,” Jimmy says, wit...
Feb 11, 2020•25 min
This week’s podcast topics have come straight off our front page and our Forum.For instance, how would you feel if an owner started allowing – maybe even encouraging – their dog to swim in the communal swimming pool.Now, many free-standing home owners allow their pets to swim in their pools. And the pets clearly enjoy it.But does that mean we should allow dogs into our communal pools? Aren’t there by-laws against that?Well, check yours but probably no, there won’t be. There might be something ab...
Feb 05, 2020•25 min
Sue Williams is back in the Flat Chat Wrap co-chair this week as we discuss the proposed Dodgy Developer Database announced by the NSW government last week.Sue reckons it can only be a good thing to get all that information but is concerned that it might all be too complicated for ordinary owners to understand.Jimmy points out that he doesn’t think it will ever see the light of day, and even if it does, ordinary people won’t have access to it to begin with, and will eventually only get to see it...
Jan 29, 2020•28 min
“It’s like heading down the runway while you are still building the plane” – no, we’re not talking about buying off the plan, but the pressures and perils of creating an Oscar-winning, multi-million-dollar animated Hollywood movie.We’re taking a slight detour this week into the world of comedy and show-business, in an interview with our good friend Warren Coleman, formerly of the Castanets Club comedy troupe but more recently a writer and co-director on Happy Feet and a writer on Happy Feet 2.No...
Jan 21, 2020•33 min
This week in the podcast we revisit the vexed question of whether or not you should be allowed to view other owners’ email addresses.The SCA (Strata Community Australia – aka, the strata managers) website says this in its FAQ for apartment block neophytes:How do I obtain the phone number/email address/postal address of members of the committee?Due to privacy laws you only have the legal right to obtain the postal address of lot owners, which you can request from the strata manager, or if the sch...
Jan 14, 2020•28 min
This week’s podcast is about the bushfires. For a change, apartments are not portrayed in the media as the worst possible way to live in Australia.That’s not to say unit blocks are immune from danger and disruption; as the original article points out, you still have to protect them from fire and floating embers.And can you imagine what would happen if the flames nudged up to a block clad in flammable composite? We’d have our own Grenfell Tower right here.Thankfully, the reality for most apartmen...
Jan 08, 2020•24 min
Privacy, consumer protections and how to engineer radical change in your apartment block are the main topics for discussion in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap podcast.A heated discussion in the Forum has spilled over into the pod, with JimmyT trying to establish where or not it’s true that the law forbids strata managers from revealing owners’ email addresses in the strata roll (in NSW).Certainly, that’s what the strata managers say but neither strata law nor privacy laws seem to back that up.So why ...
Dec 04, 2019•28 min
Privacy, consumer protections and how to engineer radical change in your apartment block are the main topics for discussion in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap podcast.A heated discussion in the Forum has spilled over into the pod, with JimmyT trying to establish where or not it’s true that the law forbids strata managers from revealing owners’ email addresses in the strata roll (in NSW).Certainly, that’s what the strata managers say but neither strata law nor privacy laws seem to back that up.So why ...
Dec 03, 2019•28 min
Amazingly, this is our 50th Flat Chat wrap which means we have been doing this for almost a year.And yet, the same topics come up, time after time, albeit with the occasional (welcome) twist.For instance, co-presenter Sue Williams has had enough of Airbnb – or, at least, stories about them. She has a point but when you are dealing with a super-aggressive interloper in the property market, you have to keep tabs on them.What have they done now? Well, they have launched their campaign against “red ...
Nov 27, 2019•28 min
Amazingly, this is our 50th Flat Chat Wrap which means we have been doing this - the podcast thing - for almost a year.And yet, the same topics come up, time after time, albeit with the occasional (welcome) twist.For instance, co-presenter Sue Williams has had enough of Airbnb – or, at least, stories about them. She has a point but when you are dealing with a super-aggressive interloper in the property market, you have to keep tabs on them.What have they done now? Well, they have launched their ...
Nov 26, 2019•28 min
This week’s podcast features JimmyT and Sue Williams examining the half-million dollar turnaround in a strata defamation case, a discussion about who’s the boss in a strata scheme – the committee or the strata manager – and a chat about how we can get a bit too relaxed when we’re planning our holidays from our “lock up and leave” apartment.The first item refers to the recent Court of Appeals decision in the case of the Manly apartment block chair who earlier this year won $120,000 in damages aft...
Nov 19, 2019•24 min
This week’s Flat Chat Wrap podcast features JimmyT and Sue Williams examining the half-million dollar turnaround in a strata defamation case, a discussion about who’s the boss in a strata scheme – the committee or the strata manager – and a chat about how we can get a bit too relaxed when we’re planning our holidays from our “lock up and leave” apartments.The first item refers to the recent Court of Apeals decision in the case of the Manly apartment block chair who won $120,000 in damages after ...
Nov 19, 2019•24 min
We cover a lot of ground in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap, starting with the surprising news that new apartments are getting bigger while houses are getting smaller. Is it all about downsizing and empty nesters?Or did we never really need all that space to begin with? You’ll never guess where the largest new apartments are … and Jimmy wonders what a rumpus room really is.Also in the podcast, we hop into Building Commissioner David Chandler about apartment purchasers and “buyer beware”. Sue (William...
Nov 13, 2019•27 min
We cover a lot of ground in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap, starting with the surprising news that new apartments are getting bigger while houses are getting smaller. Is it all about downsizing and empty nesters?Or did we never really need all that space to begin with? You’ll never guess where the largest new apartments are … and Jimmy wonders what a rumpus room really is.Also in the podcast, we hop into Building Commissioner David Chandler about apartment purchasers and “buyer beware”. Sue (William...
Nov 13, 2019•27 min
This week, JimmyT and Sue Williams tackle subjects that range from the sinister to the sublimely ridiculous … with some practical advice for investors in between.Why won’t the government release the lists of the 444 buildings that have flammable cladding on them?Is it the risk of terrorism, as they say … or is it just potential vandalism … or the effect on property prices?Jimmy has his own conspiracy theory … and it sounds all too plausible.Then Sue explains why, when you are buying an investmen...
Nov 05, 2019•25 min
This week, JimmyT and Sue Williams tackle subjects that range from the sinister to the sublimely ridiculous … with some practical advice for investors in between.Why won’t the government release the lists of the 444 buildings that have flammable cladding on them?Is it the risk of terrorism, as they say … or is it just potential vandalism … or the effect on property prices?Jimmy has his own conspiracy theory … and it sounds all too plausible.Then Sue explains why, when you are buying an investmen...
Nov 05, 2019•25 min
JimmyT thinks of changing the name of this week's episode to Hard Chat (but won't because he's scared of Tom Gleason) as he's going in hard on two very different targets.Firstly, he wants by-law breachers to either accept instant fines or face a 50 percent increase, or even more if they decide to challenge it at the Tribunal and lose. Harsh? Not harsh enough, he reckons, for people who play the system so that only the victims and people doing the right thing are the ones that suffer.Then he thin...
Oct 29, 2019•18 min
JimmyT was thinking of changing the name of this week's episode to Hard Chat as he's going in hard on two very different targets (but won't because he's scared of Tom Gleason).Firstly, he wants by-law breachers to either accept instant fines or face a 50 percent increase, or even more if they decide to challenge it at the Tribunal and lose. Harsh? Not harsh enough, he reckons, for people who play the system so that only the victims and people doing the right thing are the ones that suffer.Then h...
Oct 29, 2019•18 min
It’s a short and (hopefully) sweet Flat Chat Wrap this week with JimmyT flying solo as he looks at the clouds gathering over Airbnb and other holiday letting websites – and one ray of sunshine.The bright spot is Airbnb’s country pubs promotion which is bringing a bit of rural Australia into our homes … and maybe getting some of us out of the city and into the country. You can see some of the videos HERE.But the rest of the news is pretty gloomy for Airbnb and the other short-term holiday letting...
Oct 22, 2019•11 min
It’s a short and (hopefully) sweet Flat Chat Wrap this week with JimmyT flying solo as he looks at the clouds gathering over Airbnb and other holiday letting websites – and one ray of sunshine.The bright spot is Airbnb’s country pubs promotion which is bringing a bit of rural Australia into our homes … and maybe getting some of us out of the city and into the country. You can see some of the videos HERE.But the rest of the news is pretty gloomy for Airbnb and the other short-term holiday letting...
Oct 22, 2019•11 min
In this week’s podcast JimmyT and Sue Williams look again at the issue of the overturning of the pet ban by-law in one of Sydneys biggest and poshest apartment blocks, in the wake of the warning by the committee that any pets brought in before the appeal is heard may have to be “put down”.Is it a valid threat as there is a window when there is no active by-law? Lawyers at ten paces, we think.And what if the Appeals Tribunal says, yes, you can have a no-pets by-law … but not that one? Are there n...
Oct 15, 2019•26 min
SHOW NOTESIn this week’s podcast JimmyT and Sue Williams look again at the issue of the overturning of the pet ban by-law in one of Sydneys biggest and poshest apartment blocks, in the wake of the warning by the committee that any pets brought in before the appeal is heard may have to be “put down”.Is it a valid threat as there may be a window when there is no active by-law? Lawyers at ten paces, we think.https://episodes.castos.com/flatchatpod/Flat-Chat-44-pets-bees.mp3And what if the Appeals T...
Oct 15, 2019•26 min
Blame the bank holiday, the Rugby World Cup or the need for a break, but we thought we'd revisit our old friends at the fictional (or is it?) apartment block Dardanelle Towers, where suspicion of vandalism in the car park has fallen on an unlikely culprit.Parking, terrorism and a health scare dominated the most recent meeting of the Dardanelle Towers executive committee.The parking issue came to the fore when Bernard, our long-suffering chairman was heading off to work only to discover that the ...
Oct 08, 2019•9 min
Blame the bank holiday, the Rugby World Cup or the need for a break, but we thought we'd revisit our old friends at the fictional (or is it?) apartment block Dardanelle Towers, where suspicion of vandalism in the car park has fallen on an unlikely culprit. https://episodes.castos.com/flatchatpod/Dardanelle-Towers-3.mp3 Parking, terrorism and a health scare dominated the most recent meeting of the Dardanelle Towers strata committee.The parking issue came to the fore when Bernard, our long-sufferi...
Oct 08, 2019•9 min
We cover a lot of ground in this week’s chat with journalist and author Sue Williams, including two old favourites – Airbnb and pet bans - and a brand new concept (to us at least) negative interest.Yes, you know all about negative gearing and you may have even encountered negative equity, but Sue was hearing about negative interest at a Property Summit sponsored by The Australian Financial Review and Commercial Real Estate.But before we get to that, do you get the feeling that the walls are clos...
Oct 01, 2019•33 min
We cover a lot of ground in this week’s chat with journalist and author Sue Williams, including two old favourites – Airbnb and pet bans - and a brand new concept (to us at least) negative interest.Yes, you know all about negative gearing and you may have even encountered negative equity, but Sue was hearing about negative interest at a Property Summit sponsored by The Australian Financial Review and Commercial Real Estate.But before we get to that, do you get the feeling that the walls are clos...
Oct 01, 2019•33 min
For years I have been struck by the irony of the connection between communication and community falling 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 get fed up with having to run it, ...
Sep 25, 2019•29 min
