FLAT CHAT WRAP

Last week we discussed the new report from the NSW Office of the Building Commissioner – they’re calling it a case study – titled “Broken Promises, Blame Games and Balconies”.

It’s a big document but essential reading for anyone in an apartment block that’s about to pursue a claim for defects or is concerned about the way the whole housing industry is going (or not).

The case study follows, in granular detail,  the trail of disastrous attempts at defect rectification at the Otto 2 building in Roseberry, Sydney, where residents have been denied access to their balconies after four years and $2.5 million in legal fees. 

This week, as promised, Building Commissioner David Chandler hooked up with the Flat Chat Wrap podcast and fleshed out some of the major points of the report.

Our chat covered issues from why he decided to commission the study in the first place to investing in the fight rather than the fix and other expensive legal follies.

This longer-than-usual podcast also touched on how the additional costs of more thorough certification checks pay for themselves many times over, driving “cowboys” out of the industry and, as we try to get more homes built, not allowing quality to be sacrificed in favour of quality.

Commissioner Chandler also revealed that Fair Trading is preparing a defects kit for strata committees – not individual owners – to take them step-by-step through identifying defects and getting them fixed by the developers without needing to embark on expensive and emotionally destructive litigation.

It’s a long chat and we’ve broken it up into chunks for your listening convenience. If you don’t pod, have a look at the transcript (right here) when it’s been tidied up.  And you can read Broken Promises, Blame Games and Balconies on this link.

____________________________________________________


Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

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.

____________________________________________________


Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

This week we bring you the second part of Strata Lawyer David Bannerman's Q&A session with Flat Chat's Jimmy Thomson asking the questions sent by Flat Chat readers and Bannerman Lawyers' clients.
This week the topics include: 

• Reclassifying common property in community schemes (to avoid paying levies);
• Fraud on the minority;
• Cost recovery by-laws to deter action by owners;
• Breaches of property development deeds;
• By-laws about drying laundry on balconies;
• Renter's objection to renovation;
• Banks paying levies for properties called in after mortgages unpaid.

Yes, there's something for everyone.  And, if you missed it, you can catch up with the first part of the Hotseat session here.

____________________________________________________


Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

There’s a change of pace in the Flat Chat Wrap this week as we replay the first 30 minutes of our online chat with leading strata lawyer David Bannerman.
Jimmy was invited on to his podcast channel to fire questions at him in a session he calls “Lawyer in the Hot Seat".

In the first 30 minutes we covered topics as diverse as the Design and Building Practitioners Act, new building defects, retaining walls, by-law disputes, how to deal with a nuisance “keyboard warrior” and combustible cladding.

It’s interesting to get a definitive lawyer’s opinion on topics that affect many of us at some time in some way.

The second half of the session will be posted here next week. And if there are issues that interest you more than others, you can use our indexing on Buzzsprout.com to get you exactly where you want to be.

____________________________________________________


Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

 The housing crisis is still uppermost in many minds but there's a new twist with a former Mirvac boss, now an advisor to the government, telling the Prime Minister to do something he knows is right but is political poison.
Then there's a new way of investing in rental properties without becoming an evil landlord (or lady).
Airbnb founder Brian Chesky "airbrushes" the global holiday letting monster, saying he wishes he'd never let it loose to take people's homes. (Pauses to sniff away a tear.)
And Sydney MP Alex Greenwich wants to make life just a bit easier for renters.
Also, before we go, next week we'll have the first part of the recent Lawyer in the Hot Seat webinar here as a podcast. Enjoy. 

____________________________________________________


Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

It seems we have a new culprit on whom to blame Australia’s housing shortage – Nimbys.

Sue has collated a raft of newspaper articles here, here and here, all of which state or imply that the fault for not enough homes being built lies with local authorities who cave into their constituents’ demands not to have high-rise buildings in their burbs.

Look, there are many factors that have led to the current lack of housing and the subsequent soaring rents in Australia, but there is no one, single contributing issue.

That said, one of them doubtless is having too many residents saying Not In My Back Yard to development proposals

Fortunately, we have a solution that.., well, it won’t keep Nimbys happy – nothing will do that – but it might make them less unhappy than they otherwise would be.

And we follow-up a story about yet another supposed crackdown on dodgy real estate agents, extending that into a minor rant about Fair Trading’s pee-weak responses to complaints about strata managers.  That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.

____________________________________________________


Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

There’s a different sound to the Flat Chat Wrap this week,

Firstly it was recorded over Zoom, then Jimmy seems to have acquired hay fever in  the south of France, the lavender-growing capital of the world.

And then it’s been hastily edited on his laptop in between hikes, hotel moves and failing internet.

But the show must go and and this week Jimmy and Sue talk about what difference (if any) last week’s budget meant to the housing crisis,.
There's the Sydney council that wants to tax owners who leave their properties empty while it also wants to ban no-fault evictions and allow tenants to sign leases for several years at a time.
And finally, the strata scheme that’s in dispute with Sydney city over a tree that could be a killer.

That’s all in this week’s French- flavoured Flat Chat Wrap.

____________________________________________________


Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

It's a mixed bag in the podcast this week - but there's a lot of doom and gloom about.
We have the Reserve Bank threatening more interest rate rises (to try to get us to keep our credit cards in our wallets).
There's a story in a Sydney paper that investors could be paying $17,000 a month AFTER they've collected their rent on their property, thanks to interest rate rises.
There's (our) concerns that a fire in an apartment building garage, which caused the block to be evacuated, will spark unfounded fears about the alleged dangers of electric cars.
And there's a woman who's shocked, stunned and disgusted that her parents' retirement complex has banned large gatherings after her "modest" party of 30 or so - including young kids - took over the common areas.
All human life is here ...

____________________________________________________


Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

If you’ve ever wondered whether you really need to set aside funds or organise a loan for future lift repairs or replacement, try getting stuck in one for half an hour.

Jimmy tells of his brief incarceration (and escape) in this week’s podcast and he and Sue discuss maintaining old lifts and even adding new ones to older buildings.

But first they look at property prices, with the latest figures suggesting there may already have been a soft landing.  That’s good news for apartment owners and even prospective purchasers, and renters, as Sue explains.

Then there’s a chat about all the bells and whistles you can now get with luxury apartments and the key element missing from less salubrious unit blocks.

Plus, there’s a survey about your relationship with your strata managers (or lack thereof) which could score you a $50 gift card.

And finally, there’s news about Sue’s new book, out today – nothing to do with apartments, except that it was written in one. Enjoy.

____________________________________________________


Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

With the media dominated by the passing last week of Barry Humphries and Fr Bob Maguire, our Artificial Intelligence first-rough transcriptions service managed to conflate our brief tributes to both and come up with Barry McGuire.
Boomers may recall that that Barry was the singer of the Dylanesque Eve of Destruction, back in 1965.  Although we will miss our Barry and Bob, both giants in their fields, it’s not quite that bad.  Or is it?

In any case Sue spent a large chunk of last week remembering her friend (and Biograpy subject) on radio and TV before jetting off to New Zealand for interviews for her next book, from where she recorded her end of this podcast.

Among the topics are new NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey who says he’s focussed on solving the housing crisis, inspired by some radical icons, such as Barack Obama, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. 

We look at parents who’ve taken the “Bank of Mum And Dad” concept a stage further to make sure their son has somewhere he can afford to rent.

And we welcome our new Victoria correspondent Julie McLean.  You can read more about her HERE. 

____________________________________________________


Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook  and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to [email protected].
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.