When NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler commissioned a case study into what happened when serious defects were discovered in a new block's balconies, it revealed a trail of denials, delays, obfuscation and bloody mindedness.
That deeply flawed process just to see residents being allowed to step out on to their balconies cost the owners and developers a combined total of more than $2 million in legal fees, and still didn't get the problem fixed (at least in the short term).
Needless to say, if the defects had just been dealt with as soon as they were identified, the cost in financial and emotional terms would have been considerably less.
In this week's podcast, we pick the bones out of the case study “Broken Promises, Blame Games and Balconies” and ask if it helps or hinders the commissioner's aims to make people feel more confident about buying apartments off the plan.
On a lighter note - or maybe not - we look at the potential use or misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) in apartment blocks. That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.

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Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
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Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.