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 bombarded by abusive messages from serial pests.And is it even legal to withhold email addresses that ar...
Nov 15, 2021•31 min
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 names.Or will he? As we discuss in this week’s podcast, for all their faults (which are many and great), strat...
Nov 09, 2021•32 min
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 applies to your strata scheme .Are there penalties for failure to comply with this Big Brother-like intrusion in...
Nov 01, 2021•30 min
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 a podcast in which it sounds like Jimmy is going for a world record in the use of the word “nefariou...
Oct 26, 2021•28 min
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 fix the situation.It’s a slightly different format this time as we dip into David’s comments then disc...
Oct 18, 2021•28 min
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 80 percent of the population vaccinated, things could get a lot worse before they get better, if only...
Oct 12, 2021•28 min
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 desirable to keep the unvaccinated out of gyms, pools, saunas, spas, communal areas and video theatres?Or, looking at ...
Oct 05, 2021•29 min
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 Chandler. So if Bing brought you here in search of Chandler Bing, our apologies. But, hey, you're am...
Sep 28, 2021•28 min
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 buildings, the response has been ham-fisted.An editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald from the Owners...
Sep 20, 2021•28 min
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 up.One major element of that strategy is to allow managers, health workers or even police to knock on ...
Sep 14, 2021•30 min
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 reduce the rents of tenants who are doing it tough. You can read all about that HERE.Then we discuss Franc...
Sep 07, 2021•33 min
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 court to pay more than $1million in compensation, plus legal costs, after their attempts to blame everyon...
Aug 31, 2021•24 min
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 noise down? And should we be bothered if they draw a hopscotch grid on the driveway in chalk?And then t...
Aug 24, 2021•36 min
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 said that progress has been slow and occasionally faltering, as we look at all the “hot” issues, such as d...
Aug 17, 2021•32 min
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 from Tenants-NSW CEO Leo Patterson Ross about what happens to pet-owning renters who have to move house...
Aug 10, 2021•37 min
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 apartments and townhouses are significantly different from each other and, certainly, from free-standing bungal...
Aug 03, 2021•35 min
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 Building (sub)Standards for noise mitigation in apartments which are close to useless even before builders ...
Jul 27, 2021•24 min
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 NSW government goes and stuffs it up by issuing Public Health Orders about who can work where, completel...
Jul 19, 2021•29 min
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 Sydney’s most affluent areas that has seen work halted until problems with the construction are fixed....
Jul 13, 2021•36 min
As we emerge from our “close contact” self-isolation we are probably going to have to go back into hiding after the selfie we took of ourselves still at work, despite lockdowns, which appeared in the Fin Review last weekend.Responses have ranged from “a picture-perfect combination of domestic bliss and productivity” to “oh, dear … you look like two crazy old people.”Of course, either or both of these may possibly be true.Back to the podcast, on which we discuss how much (or little) the governmen...
Jul 05, 2021•24 min
There's a saying going around that it's the hope that kills you - and certainly, fans of the Scotland, Sweden, France, Netherlands and German football teams at the European Championships would concur.Of course, it's nonsensense. If anything kills you, it's complacency. You walk around feeling like you're immune and then you find out the person sitting next to you in a cafe definitely wasn't virus-free, and your attitude changes quickly.So in this week’s podcast Sue and I chat about what it’s lik...
Jun 29, 2021•29 min
OK, it’s not in the same category as someone getting a couple of million clicks on a Tik Tok movie of them trying on a new pair of trainers, but Hyperbole Towers, the Flat Chat venture into “PodCom” quietly clicked over 1000 listens at the weekend.Hyperbole Towers is the pilot episode of what would once have been called a radio sitcom, set in an apartment block where a long-suffering chairperson struggles to manage a dysfunctional strata committee.Written by yours truly (drawing on many years of...
Jun 22, 2021•23 min
Covid-19 is back in the news in new, super-infectious variants, and in the podcast this week we ask the highly relevant question of what do you do if it comes to your apartment block?Do you expect everyone in your block to be told that someone is self-isolating because they have been tested, or were in a certain place at the same time as an infected person, or if they just have a bit of a cough and the sniffles?Would you be annoyed if you were that person and all your neighbours were warned to s...
Jun 21, 2021•23 min
We’re looking at some big news this week on the podcast and wondering what it all means.NSW Fair Trading has announced that they will be appointing a properties commissioner - like building commissioner David Chandler, only maybe without the fear factor – to help regulate all the professions involved in looking after buying, selling, renting and managing properties.What might those professions be? The inaugural appointees of Fair Trading’s Property Services Expert Panel provides a clue. The invi...
Jun 15, 2021•33 min
This week in the podcast Sue Williams is in Darwin on an assignment, and finds that not only is Darwin the hottest city in Australia temperature-wise (probably … apart from Alice … and maybe Coober Pedy) it has the hottest property market with house prices going up an astonishing amount and apartments not far behind.Then we delve into the woes of the Toplace developers – or maybe their off-the-plan purchasers – as defects are found, repairs that might be fine but look suspiciously like band-aid ...
Jun 07, 2021•21 min
This week on the podcast we look GOMO, specifically grief over missing out on your dream home.It’s the other side of FOMO, where fear of missing out has you plunging headlong into what might be unwise purchases and contracts.When it comes to houses, it can feel more like a seduction and betrayal when you’ve been encouraged to imagine living there for years of domestic bliss, then the faithless vendor goes and sells it to someone else, just because they have more money.You can get a taste of Sue’...
Jun 01, 2021•26 min
We admit we can get a little city-centric here at Flat Chat so last weekend it was good to get out of the urban jungle and find out what’s happening elsewhere.And the news is that Newcastle is booming, beach holiday homes are bouncing back and the roads are almost as crazy as they were pre-covid.Back in what passes for the real world, in this week’s Flat Chat we talk about how construction insurance premiums for low rise buildings and renovations are getting out of control, based on this story.L...
May 25, 2021•24 min
There is no building in Sydney that has polarised opinions more than the Sirius apartments on Circular Quay – unless you include the Opera House, its architectural antithesis across the bay.After years of controversy, plans have been revealed and expressions of interest sought in what will be a revolutionary revamp of the former housing commission apartment block.You can read more about it the multi-million-dollar project here - and see a slideshow of the proposed revanp - but, naturally we also...
May 18, 2021•28 min
With property prices soaring but houses outstripping apartments, as detailed in this story, we try to make sense of it all.Why is the gap between the cost of houses and apartments growing, even though apartment prices are coming back up to pre-pandemic levels.And will the current apartment glut in Melbourne – with consequential 11 per cent drops in rents – flip to a shortage, soaring sales prices and runaway rents as soon as our borders reopen and short-term rentals are re-listed?Who knows? But ...
May 11, 2021•28 min
If you have a hankering for the high life and have a lazy $22 million lying around, you could score an apartment in the huge Crown tower above James Packer’s (currently non-functioning) casino.If that’s too rich for your blood, how much would you expect to pay for a two-bed, two-bath pad on a lower floor? All is revealed in our Flat Chat Wrap podcast this week.But before we get to that, there’s the small matter of how data mining is going to lead to a trebling of the number of apartment blocks u...
May 04, 2021•27 min
