FLAT CHAT WRAP

This week’s Flat Chat Wrap has a look at something we predicted a few weeks ago – that the knives would soon be out for Building Commissioner David Chandler, just as they were all those years ago for Police Commissioner Peter Ryan.Why? Maybe because he's been a bit too successful at doing exactly what he was asked to do - get rid of of a crooks and shonks in the property development industry. Those crooks and shonks didn't get where they are today without having friends in high places ... and the media.We also take a quick squiz at some new statistics that show that more and more Australians are moving into apartment blocks.And Jimmy has a bit of a rant about Airbnb (what, again???) and passes on a brilliant suggestion from a reader that could fix the issue of residential properties being switched to holiday rentals when there’s a dire housing shortage.And then we look at the block where someone got themselves elected to their strata committee than promptly gave their vote to a mate and took off for a year’s holiday. There’s all that and more on the Flat Chat Wrap this week.TRANSCRIPTION IN FULLJimmy  00:00You got over your post-COVID brain fog?Sue  00:03I don't think I ever had any.Jimmy  00:04Well, I had it.Sue  00:05Did you?Jimmy  00:05Yes, last week.  I did the newsletter and got it all ready and then decided at the last minute to change just one line. I went back in, edited it and then forgot to resend. It was only that I got an email on Friday morning from a reader saying "oh, have you stopped doing your newsletter, because I really look forward to it," that I thought "oh god, it hasn't gone out!"Sue  00:29Wow, because I actually got the newsletter the other day, and I thought "oh, this is a bit weird. Why am I getting it today?"Jimmy  00:35Because of brain fog! Okay, right. We'd better crack on. I'm Jimmy Thomson. I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  00:44And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  00:47This is the Flat Chat Wrap. Remember a few weeks ago, we were talking about David Chandler, and how he was in danger of moving into Peter Ryan territory?Sue  01:12Oh right; being white-anted?Jimmy  01:13Yes, and it's started. There's an article you pointed out in The Australian newspaper, that he is being investigated by the Fair Trading Department; his boss, Eleni Petinos, the Fair Trading and Small Business... Sorry, I should correct myself... She's Small Business first and then a bit of Fair Trading, added on. Yes, because of a speech that he made, where he said he'd provided a list to the banks of all the dodgy certifiers...Sue  01:49Right. It's probably beyond his remit, is it?Jimmy  01:53Well, he was saying at the time, that these are people who will probably never work again, because they've been shown to be dodgy. And of course, this has set off alarms, because it's much more important for dodgy certifiers to be protected, than it is for people who buy apartments to be protected from dodgy certifiers.Sue  02:18Well, dodgy certifiers have more access to the funds that you need to go to court...Jimmy  02:24Dodgy certifiers are employed by dodgy developers. And so this is where somebody (I don't even know who it was in Parliament. I don't know which party they were members of; I don't really care, to be honest). It's just so typical of "oh, he said this thing!" The thing is, he has said this, and there's no doubt that he said it. He was recorded saying it and I think we might have spoken about it before, at a meeting that journalists were not invited to. He said this thing, but has he actually done it? Is there any evidence? Has anybody seen the list? Has anybody from the banks come up and said "oh, yeah, here's the list of dodgy developers." Do you think he was maybe,

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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.

Having braved the wilds of Scotland and the woes of Covid, we are back with a brand new Flat Chat Wrap podcast, with our usual mixture of optimism and, it must be said, the occasional bout of weary skepticism.The optimism stems from the plans for a new high-end apartment block that will bring owners together with key worker in affordable rentals, plus some social housing.And the remarkable thing about this is that the purchasers of apartments costing up to $2.4m actually like the ides of having a broad democratic spread among their neighbours.The skepticism comes from wondering what the government is going to do about rental affordability and availability when they are so desperately keen not to do anything about holiday rentals having taken over what should be residential homes.  And then we have the woman in a small apartment block whose racist neighbour is just making up the rules as he goes – aided and abetted by absentee owners and a supine strata manager – including banning her from common property.  That’s all in this week’s refreshed and renewed podcast.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00We're back, after a couple of weeks' break while I was away, and while we were doing the 'Lawyer in the Hot Seat' thing.Sue  00:07And then when you came back, you brought a special souvenir for me; two souvenirs. One was a really nice pair of pyjamas, so thank you for that, and the other one was a dose of Scottish COVID!Jimmy  00:17Yes, it's a very special Scottish COVID. Deep-fried COVID.Sue  00:23So my pleasure at seeing you back was tempered somewhat, by both of us then falling ill.Jimmy  00:28Yes. At one point earlier this year in Scotland, one person in 11 was infected with COVID. If I had known that, I would never have gone over there! And we are in a very unusual position for us, this week.Sue  00:45What's that?Jimmy  00:45You've just finished writing a book?Sue  00:48Yes.Jimmy  00:48Which means for the first time that I can remember, you are not in the middle of writing a book, because they've all overlapped. You know, you had 'Elizabeth & Elizabeth,' and then you had 'Daughter of the River Country,' and then you had 'Mary Mary.' Oh sorry, the Fiona Wood biography, which is coming out...Sue  01:07In September, I think, yes. It's weird, isn't it? I mean, it's so strange, because all the time you're on a mad deadline and you're working and you're thinking "oh my god, I wish I didn't have these books to write.' You think it's going to be so wonderful when you don't have them and and as soon as you don't have them, I start getting really fidgety and thinking "oh, my god, what am I going to do with my life?"Jimmy  01:08You'll think of something.Sue  01:31Yes. I wrote the words 'the end' today, which is my favourite part of writing a book, but I still need to go through the book and just trim it up and kind of refine it a little bit, I think.Jimmy  01:43The essence of good writing is rewriting.Sue  01:45Yes, but hopefully not too much rewriting!Jimmy  01:49Okay, now back to our proper job, which is this podcast. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  01:58And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  02:00And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[Music]Jimmy One of the features on the Flat Chat website at the moment, is something that you wrote for The Sydney Morning Herald, about a development in Wollongong.Sue  02:26Yes, that was fascinating. I mean, I went there just before you came home and made me sick, Jimmy.Jimmy  02:33Can we just get over it?Sue  02:35Okay. So I went down to Wollongong. I went to the breaking ground ceremony and it was the start of a new fabulous luxury apartment building. But it was a very, very different apartment building.

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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.

Welcome to the second part of Lawyer In The Hot Seat, in which strata lawyer (and Flat Chat sponsor) David Bannerman invited us on to his webinar.This week, Jimmy asks and David answers your questions about the NSW strata information hub and whether it might deter people from taking office-bearer roles in strata committees.On short-term letting, David suggests that an over-crowding by-law may be the most effective way of dealing with abuses, especially with its much higher fines.We discuss strata committees wrongly using OC funds for political campaigns – even when they are strata-related (such as pro or anti-pets and EV charging).We also look at questions about the right to view CCTV after a theft from a car, who compensates a tenant when their parking is closed off, a two-lot strata scheme with no records, inadequate lighting on a dark pathway and what you can do when your upstairs neighbour exposes their floorboards and becomes a noise nuisance.That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00Hello, this is the second part of the coverage of our webinar, 'Lawyer in the Hot Seat,' with strata lawyer, David Bannerman. This week, we pick up on the question of the Strata Hub; the information repository, that some people think might be asking us to give too much information, such as personal phone numbers and email addresses. There's a whole heap of other stuff, including some questions that were sent in, as we were doing the webinar. So, sit back and enjoy. Once again, the sound quality isn't up to our usual standards, because we recorded it on Zoom, but it's okay. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review and this is the Flat Chat Wrap.JimmyThe hub; the famous Strata Hub, David... The question is, how will owners corporations entice strata committee members to become office bearers, when their private email addresses and phone numbers will be available to every resident of the building (and owner, who might not be a resident). Do you see that as an issue, coming up?David Bannerman  01:24The Strata Hub is certainly a bone of contention at the moment, with the strata industry, particularly the strata managers. They're concerned, that they will lose some members who are willing to be office bearers, because the two office bearer's positions will be shared with all the owners. The secretary's position and the chairperson's position, and the way it's framed; even though the manager's delegated the functions, that won't suffice, by simply inserting the strata manager's details. It will need to be the individual committee person, who's appointed as a chairperson, and likewise, the secretary. That is a position there that will also be disclosed to various parties, being the emergency contact person, such as the police and emergency services. Now, the strata managing agent can be appointed to that position. I think that in small buildings, where people already know everybody, it won't have any impact on that position, but I think that in larger buildings, like 100-odd lots, where there could be a lot more emails than what a secretary or chairperson might wish to receive from random occupants or owners, that they may prefer not to take that position. So, it could have an impact on that larger scale.Jimmy  02:49Yes, and I think the problem is that, as many people have said, it's hard enough to get people to do the job sometimes, because the kind of people that you want to be in the position of chair or secretary, are smart, intelligent, successful people, who might be already busy, being smart, intelligent and successful in their working life. They certainly don't want to be sitting there at work and get an email saying 'what about that barking dog in flat 17?' You know, it's that kind of thing; or the abusive ones, that occasionally come up. I remember years ago, somebody said to me that one resident out of ever..

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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.

Amid all the discussions on this website about strata law, regulations and by-laws, we spend a lot of time talking about the way things ought to be and the difference with how they really are.David BannermanEvery so often it helps to cut through all the wishful thinking and speculation to get some definitive answers and so we were delighted to be asked by David Bannerman of Bannermans Lawyers to participate in his monthly webinar.In fact, it’s worth pointing out that this was actually his show, not ours, but judging by the intro, I seem to have inadvertently hijacked the online event.But that’s all window-dressing. In this, the first half of a discussion in which David - one of Flat Chat's strata law sponsors - answers your questions, we got into issues like water-proofing, how design practitioners are delayingwork and inflating the costs, the whole pet by-laws issue, sacking managers and EV charging.At this point I have to say there are parts where David’s audio is less than perfect – the perils of using Zoom to record these events – and if you are really struggling with it, the transcript (below) will get the job done.Next week, we’ll run the second part of what turned out to be a very interesting chat with some truly curly questions from you, our readers.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00Just over a week ago, I hosted a webinar online. We called it 'Lawyer in the Hot Seat,' and one of our sponsors, strata lawyer David Bannerman, came along to answer your questions, which had been sent in advance on a Zoom webinar. The webinar lasted an hour; we've cut it into two parts, that we are presenting this week and next. The sound quality isn't up to our usual standards, because we recorded it on Zoom. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review, and this is a special Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]JimmyWe've got a lot of questions to get through. David Bannerman is the fastest lawyer in the east, so we'll probably get through quite a lot. I'm seeing lots of chat coming up and I hope somebody else is looking at them, because I am a bear of little brain, and I can only do so much at one time. Are you ready, David?David Bannerman  01:11Thanks Jimmy, for joining us. For those of you who don't know, Jimmy (most of you should), but he's a well-known commentator in the strata space and was recently in the AFR, talking about Strata Hub, and is often in the frontline of lots of owner inquiries, regarding strata stuff. We thought it'd be good to see what sort of questions he's frequently encountering and seeing what we can do to help the strata community get a better footing on their position.Jimmy  01:40All right, thank you for that. David. I'm going to kick off with a question that comes pretty much straight off the Flat Chat forum and it is; if an external hosepipe on say, a washing machine, bursts and floods the unit downstairs, passing through common property, who is responsible for the repairs; the upstairs owner, or their insurance (if they have it), strata insurance, or the downstairs owners' insurance (if they have it)?David Bannerman  02:10It's a good question and it happens a lot, where there's a few rights that follow. One is, the person who might have suffered the damage below, could have an 'action in nuisance' against the person above, for allowing the water to escape from their property and cause the damage below. Now, it wouldn't normally be a failing in the common property, because concrete is porous, so it's supposed to allow water through, so there's probably no problem with the common property in that circumstance. As to insurance though, a strata insurance will typically cover burst pipes, and claims can be processed through that. Alternatively, a claim could be processed through the lot owner's insurance, in the event that it covered that sort of event. The payment of the excess and the increase in the premium that..

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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 first thing that happens after a new government is elected is that the Prime Minister and the party divvy up the ministries.The next thing after that is that they look at what they have promised during the election campaign and work out how much of it they can or want to implement.In this week’s podcast we ask if the new Labor government’s commitment to co-owning homes with first-time property buyers is going to take the heat out of the property market … or just make it worse.And will the government grasp the nettle of negative gearing and dial down the effect that one economist has described as rewarding people for making bad property investments?We meet a new strata owner who has, with the best intentions, managed to get most of his colleagues on his committee offside by asking awkward questions.We also look at a couple of points that came out of last week’s “Lawyer in the Hot Seat” webinar.   The first was a part of strata law that’s generally overlooked which is that if you win a tribunal case against your owners corp, they have to find a way of making sure you don’t pay any part of their legal expenses - and that means a special levy that excludes you.The other item that stood out was, if your owners corporation has been making donations to campaigns for or against even strata-related issues, such as pets or short-term letting, they have probably been breaking the law.All that and more in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00Well, there's been an election, and we've got a new government, or we're getting one.Sue  00:03Yes, sure thing!Jimmy  00:04So we'll be talking a bit about what that means to the housing market. What else have we got on the agenda, Sue?Sue  00:11Well, you took part in a webinar the other day, I think, didn't you?Jimmy  00:13I did.Sue  00:14With the strata lawyer, David Bannerman, and you said that a couple of really interesting things came up there. I think you also had a really interesting query on the Flat Chat forum, from a first-time strata owner?Jimmy  00:25Yes, somebody who's got themselves on the committee and immediately started raising the alarm about things that they thought should have been done and hadn't been done. There's a lot to talk about. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I wrote the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  00:41And I'm Sue Williams, and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  00:43And this is the Flat Chat Wrap. So we now have a government with the majority who are Labor Party, but crossbenchers...Sue  01:07Playing a big role, as well.Jimmy  01:08Yes and I mean, the Greens were talking about building millions of houses, or apartments. I don't remember the teal independents saying much about housing. They were very much focused on the environment and integrity.Sue  01:26That's right.Jimmy  01:27We're back to what the Labor Party was proposing, which was that they would be co-owners of houses and flats, for first time buyers.Sue  01:39And it's interesting, because I think the Liberals staked a lot on their plan about housing affordability; on allowing people to use more of their super and it seemed really, as if that was quite a popular notion, but then maybe, a lot of the negatives about the Liberals, outweighed that positive. But I mean, lots of people were saying, well, you shouldn't be using your super; you should be keeping it for when you're older. And other people were saying, well, it's a great idea, because an investment in super, doesn't pay as much as an investment in property.Jimmy  02:12That's true.Sue  02:12So in some ways, there were lots of things in favour of that, but maybe it just wasn't quite popular enough.Jimmy  02:23You know, it was all politics, really. I don't think the scare campaign about having Jim Chalmers sitting at the end of your kitch..

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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 on the Flat Chat Wrap, as we approach the election, we are looking again at the various parties housing policies and wonder what they really mean.We recorded this before the announcement that young people will be able dip into their Super to help fund the purchase of a flat or house if the Coalition holds on to power, and the revelation on ABC radio that they couldn’t find a single economist who thought it was a good idea.I mean, do young people have much in the way of super anyway?Instead we focus on the previous offer to older Australians to downsize and put their profits into their super.  As we discuss, with the gap between median house and apartment prices being almost double, that could be a big chunk o’ money.Elsewhere on the pod, we are revisiting a couple of hot topics that have been covered in detail on the website.  There’s EV charging and some disturbing information about how the strata Hub will work, for a start.There another piece of bad news for the benighted owners of Mascot Towers and a revelation from the Forum about a 24-unit block that’s just been hit with a $2 million special levy for a balcony revamp that might not even be needed.All that and more in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00It's the last week before the election, and they're throwing out policies. When I say throwing out; they're spreading their wisdom.Sue  00:08Absolutely.Jimmy  00:09So, we're going to talk about some policies that are related to apartments. We're going to talk about electric vehicles, because I listened into that webinar the other day. What else have we got, Sue?Sue  00:22We're also going to be talking about the latest development in Mascot Towers, which isn't so good, either. And, the case of an apartment building, which has just imposed a huge special levy on its residence.Jimmy  00:38Alright. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  00:44And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  00:47And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]JimmySo it's Sunday, and we've retreated to our little office, to get away from the smell of barbecue smoke from downstairs.Sue  01:12Because it's such a lovely day. It's a good BBQ day, really.Jimmy  01:15Whatever they're doing; they're either burning charcoal, or burning whatever they're trying to cook and they shouldn't be doing it. And you know who you are and you'd better stop. All right? Now, the election; well, we've got this policy, which is unfortunately about superannuation and downsizing. I say 'unfortunately,' because I don't really understand superannuation, to be honest.Sue  01:43Don't you?Jimmy  01:43No.Sue  01:44You better learn it quickly, now you're getting older!Jimmy  01:47I should, but apparently, they're going to allow anyone who's over 65, who sells their house because they're downsizing...Sue  01:56Anyone over 55, Jimmy.Jimmy  02:00They can then put $300,000 of the money they get from selling their big house, into their superannuation when they move into a smaller property, which let's face it, often means apartments.Sue  02:16Absolutely. And they will have much more time, when they won't be penalised on their pension, for having that extra money.Jimmy  02:27See, that's the bit I don't understand, is the pension thing. But anyway, it must be good news for potential downsizers, or the government wouldn't be trumpeting it and the opposition wouldn't be saying "oh, yeah, we'll do that and we'll go better."Sue  02:45Well, the opposition has kind of said it's a bit modest, really, and they say they don't really know what kind of effect it will have. They say if you're around 55, or just over; how many people who have families, would have kids out of home by then?

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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.

Imagine you are the chair or secretary of a strata scheme.  You can cope with fielding a reasonable number of messages via the strata manager or building manager.It’s a mixed bag, some of the messages are simple and straightforward, some are well-intentioned if occasionally ill-informed, and there’s the odd one that’s abusive and ignorant.It’s all part of the cut and thrust of strata living and one way or another it lets you know what people in the building are thinking.Then one day, you start getting angry phone calls on your personal phone and your private email inbox is swamped with abusive emails and spam.That’s when you might decide enough is enough.  Keeping your hands on the levers of power is not worth the hassle and personal abuse to which you are suddenly subjected.That’s the nightmare scenario dreaded by some strata professionals, and it’s one they fear will see competent and experienced strata office-bearers give up when NSW’s new strata Hub comes into being at the end of next month.From June 30, strata committee office-bearers’ email addresses and phone numbers will be available to all owners and residents, including renters, as well as rental agents. We kick that around on this week’s podcast.We also look at the challenges real estate agents face when they are trying to sell properties in blocks that have been allowed to go to seed, or apartments where the vendors are determinedly living in the past.And we pick up on a Forum question about whether or not strata owners are legally obliged to maintain a TV aerial on the roof of their building.That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap podcast.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00Have you heard of the strata hub?Sue  00:02Oh, vaguely, but it was a while ago that I last heard about it.Jimmy  00:06Right. So this is the thing that was set up; originally, it was Victor Dominello's idea to have a central repository for all the information about every strata scheme in New South Wales. It's all going to happen on June the 30th, so we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about buying and selling and what you see when you go around, looking at apartments. We're going to talk about TV aerials, and strata lawyers (a lot, actually). Another day when we thought we had nothing and now, we discover that we've got too much. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  00:46And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  00:49And this is the Flat Chat Wrap. So, the strata hub; a new regulation. Interesting, reading it. For a start, it's confusing (of course), because it's Australian law, so it has to be confusing. This is information that strata schemes have to give to the secretary, with a capital S. Who would you assume the Secretary was?Sue  01:28The person who was nominated to be the secretary, by the rest of the strata committee.Jimmy  01:33No, it's not them. It's the Secretary in the Department of Services. Not Community Services; Services New South Wales. So, they've got a capital S for this Secretary, but of course, you're reading it and you're going, so if you're giving this to the Secretary, who's the Secretary? It's a different Secretary.Sue  02:01Because my second guess, when you asked me that question, would have been the strata managing agent. It would never have occurred to me; the Department Secretary.Jimmy  02:09No, there you go. I'm glad we've cleared that up, or caused more confusion. This is what your strata secretary has to provide to the government secretary; the strata plan number, the date of registration of the strata plan, whether or not it's part of a community scheme, whether or not it's part of a precinct scheme. The address, the total number of lots, the number of lots in the strata scheme used for residential, retirement village, commercial,

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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.

Sometimes the fur flies at weddings, and things can certainly get catty between landlords and tenants but, as we explore in this week's podcast, a woman has taken things to a whole new level in an effort to get round restrictions on pets.This story about the woman who married her cat started in Sidcup, just outside London, and has gone around the world and back again. But Jimmy did some digging and discovered that on just about every occasion, it has been misreported.It's not the cat-lady's fault - people just made assumptions (as they do). So, listen in for the truth behind reports that this was to avoid eviction for having a pet where one wasn’t allowed.There’s more to this than meets the (cat’s) eye, including the revelation that Debora Hodge isn't the first cat lover to marry her pet.Then there’s the certifier of the building next to Mascot Towers who was discovered to have been in China when he was supposedly approving the building works.We ask why Building Commissioner David Chandler didn’t want journalists at a developers’ seminar he addressed recently.We examine why councillors and council officials in a Sydney Local Government Area now have to register every meeting they have with developers. (We use the word “record” in the podcast but we mean make a written record, not an audio recording.)And we speculate on what interest rate rises and political posturing is likely to do to apartment prices and rental availability.That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap … and here’s a video of the cat lady, as a little bonus.https://youtu.be/8YEYJy_nIFITRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00Every week we sit down to do this podcast, and we start off thinking we don't have anything to talk about. By the time we are sat down, we're thinking "we don't have enough time, to talk about everything."This week, we have a woman who married her cat, so that she could stay in her rented accommodation. Although, there's more to that than it sounds. We've got the certifier...Sue  00:26Did the cat own the apartment or something?Jimmy  00:28 No.Sue  00:29Pets weren't allowed in the apartment; that's why she married her pet?Jimmy  00:32 Not even that.Sue  00:32Oh, okay. I'll be interested to hear about that!Jimmy  00:35And, there's a certifier who's been struck off, for life. We've got all sorts of other things with developers, including David Chandler... Big news about David Chandler; the Building Commissioner and what the various parties are promising to do about housing. The Greens have got some pretty exciting ideas. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review. And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain. And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]Sue  01:21So, what's this about the woman marrying her cat?Jimmy  01:23Oh, this is a story that's bouncing around social media at the moment. Basically, the story is that Deborah Hodge from Sidcup in southeast London, has married her cat India, to avoid... Well, according to the stories, it's to avoid being evicted from her apartment and then you dig into the story and you discover that she is not in danger of being evicted because she has a cat, she's in danger of being evicted, because she hasn't paid her rent.Sue  01:54Oh! So why has she married her cat?Jimmy  01:57To make it clear to prospective landlords, that she and the cat come as a unit. Twice in the past she has "had to give up her beloved pets, because landlords didn't allow pets in the rented property." Okay, I know exactly what you're thinking; you're thinking well, find another property that does allow pets. Two Huskies were the first ones that she had to give up and another cat, which apparently broke her heart. So Deborah; poor Deborah, she's (dare I use the word 'failed'?), no longer employed as a 'life coach.'Sue  02:37

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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.

In this week’s podcast we dive into the exciting world of flat-sharing … something neither of us have done for at least 30 years.How different can it all be in the Third Millennium?  Well, for a start, we didn't have the internet, where you can advertise your flat or yourself, including pictures, to see if you may be a better match than just turning up at the door with a deposit.But there’s more than that.  There are now all sorts of useful apps to help you function as a group of like-minded residents rather than just a bunch of people who share the rent, as well as prctical advice on how to be a better flatmate and how to get rid of someone who turns out to be a pain in the butt.There are a lot of flat-sharing websites around but we focused on flatmatefinders.com.au and flatmates.com.au, which is where we found lists of the most and least expensive flat shares in Australia. You'll find a guide to the apps here.Also in the podcast this week we look back at the effects of covid, materials shortages and terrible weather and wonder if any off-the-plan developments are nearing their sunset clause deadlines.And if so, who is more likely to tear up the contracts – the developers or the purchasers?We take a quick look at a report that says our worst-designed buildings and suburbs are driving residents out of their overheated homes and into the air-conditioned cool of shopping malls.And we ask why so many local government areas aren’t meeting their new housing targets.  That’s all in this week’s podcast.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00Last week, we blithely advised listeners who are struggling even to find somewhere to rent, that they could houseshare.Sue  00:06Sure.Jimmy  00:08They need somewhere to live. So we're going to be looking at that whole house sharing thing in today's podcast. And, we're going to be talking about sunset clauses and how they can affect your decisions on buying (or not buying), off-the-plan. And, a couple of other things, that have come up in the news. I'm Jimmy Thomson; I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  00:32And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  00:35And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]JimmySo, having advised our listeners (who can't afford to buy, or rent a flat on their own), to maybe consider flat-sharing, I had a bit of a look at that this weekend, to see how you would do it. I mean, it's been so long, since we've shared houses with anyone and of course, since we last did it, the internet has been invented, and stuff like that.Sue  01:14That's right. It always used to be notes on boards, if you were at college or word-of-mouth from friends and...Jimmy  01:21'Room to rent.'Sue  01:23Well, they still do stick them on lampposts sometimes, don't they? But that's probably not a very efficient way of doing it.Jimmy  01:29Probably not, although it does get you people who are already living in the area. So anyway, I went online, and I found a few things; there's a thing called Gumtree Share, or Gumtree Rent. But the two big platforms seem to be flatmates.com.au and Flatmate Finders is another one. flatmates.com.au is owned by realestate.com.au They bought it in 2016, for $25 million.Sue  02:07Wow!Jimmy  02:08It claims to be the most visited website; Flatmate Finder claims to have the most properties and potential renters on it. Some of the figures that they use, it's quite funny. flatmates.com.au says "we're twice as big as our nearest rivals," and then, they show you this graph, that shows that they have 90% of the market, which... So, it's different figures, but let's just say that there are two platforms that are big there. There are others, but these seem to be the biggest ones. The way they make their money is that you can list your property (or yourself, if you're looking for a flat share), for free,

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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 delve into the dark arts employed by real estate agents and property stylists to persuade you that an absolute lemon is, in fact, your dream “forever home.”How come that beautiful tapestry is on the wall of this humble abode? Why are all the lights on and the windows closed?Why are there three real estate agents from the same firm at a viewing of one relatively humble unit? We have some answers that will amaze and appal you.Also in the podcast, we try once again to shed a light on electrical vehicle charging and, more to the point, why so many people are dead set against it.Jimmy posits an unprovable thesis that the same people who expect to be allowed to build an extension on their balcony on a nod and a wink, suddenly want by-laws, legally binding guarantees and acts of parliament before they’ll put a meter on an electrical socket.This discussion – which is still going on – was prompted by Sue’s story about the doctor who was forced to sell his electric car and followed up by lively exchanges on the Forum.The upshot? The laws are already in place to make this, theoretically, a slam-dunk for anyone who wants to charge their car.  But they are vague enough to give the climate denialists enough ammunition to stop it.To be fair there are schemes where the wiring that’s been in place since Day One defies the best efforts of pro-EV residents to move this forward.However the BS Brigade may have met its match in a webinar planned for next month – and the supporting literature already online – that presents the true facts of the matter.  We catch up with trends in property prices (softening) and rents (soaring) and what’s happening with flammable cladding when Jimmy does something he almost never does – he agrees with the government.That’s all in this week’s podcast.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00It's Easter Monday. Everybody else is on holiday, but not the Flat Chat podcast.Sue  00:05No, we never holiday.Jimmy  00:06We never close, like the old Windmill Theatre in London. Today we're going to talk about; I suppose you could call it controversy... There's a bit of discussion on the Flat Chat website, about electric vehicle charging. It was all started by your story, by the way.Sue  00:24Oh, right.Jimmy  00:26We're going to talk also, about the latest on cladding and you've got quite a lot of stuff about property prices, and rents.Sue  00:37Yep, all about the market.Jimmy  00:38All about the market. We'll be talking about that. I thought this might be a short podcast, but I've got a feeling that it's not going to be short. Anyway, I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  00:53And I'm Sue Williams, I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  00:57And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]JimmyIt's a bit quieter outside today. We don't have the usual...Well, now that I've said that, we'll probably get a procession of trucks and cars, driving up the road outside. Usually, we have to stop when things get a bit noisy outside and sometimes, we just keep going. It adds to the ambience, or not. Did I get into trouble this week, over electric vehicle charging? You wrote a story about the building that..Sue  01:38Refused to allow one of it's residents to use the power point in the garage.Jimmy  01:43Yes, and then we had quite a long exchange with people on the Flat Chat forum and I completely misread the situation, because I thought it was the strata manager responsible (or his company had come back), which it turned out, was a completely different person; nothing to do with them. This is on the forum, if you want to catch up with this. It was interesting, because all these situations are different and some of them are unique. This person who wrote to us had, I think it was 36 garage openers, on one circuit. So,

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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.