FLAT CHAT WRAP

This week in the Flat Chat Wrap podcast we take a deep dive into the strata managers’ code of ethics.We touched on the topic in the Forum last week and its worth revisiting as the NSW  branch of the Strata Community Association is about to officially launch its state government-approved Professional Standards Scheme.The SCA (NSW) Code of Ethics underpins its professional standards and the built-in disciplinary procedures add some heft to its definitions of what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour by strata managers.It’s a fairly dense document but the accompanying guide skirts around the issues that we think are most important.These include strata managers enabling incompetent and possibly even corrupt committees, while aiding and abetting developers who are intent on ripping off apartment buyers with embedded networks and pre-sold management rights contracts.Also on the pod, we ask why the building commissioner is taking such a keen interest in developments on the north coast of NSW.Property prices are booming up there – does that mean the developer sharks are circling?And, on the eve of the Owners’ Corporation Network’s annual Strata Matters conference, we ask who is looking after apartment owners in other states.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00We've been invited to a big function next week.Sue  00:02We have!Jimmy  00:03The Strata Community Association, previously Strata Community Australia, before they included New Zealand.Sue  00:12Oh really! Is that..Jimmy  00:13That's why they changed their name.Sue  00:15I always have to look it up, every time I write about anybody from there and I always think "why can I just never remember, whether it's Australia or Association?"Jimmy  00:24Well, that's why, because it was, once.Sue  00:26 Oh, right, so I'm not quite going mad.Jimmy  00:29So, the New South Wales branch has its AGM next week, but they're also doing the big launch of their professional standards system (whatever you call it). It's almost like they're becoming like accountants, where the government recognises that they provide professional standards. Presumably, at some point in the future they will be able to say "if you're going to have input from a strata manager, they must be members of SCA New South Wales," so it's a big deal.But, part of that process was to create a Code of Ethics, which we touched upon last week on the website (in the forum), and it actually bears a bit of exploration and examination, so we'll be doing that. We're talking about property up in northern New South Wales, which has been visited by the Building Commissioner and, we'll have a chat about what kind of organisations there are for owners, in other states in Australia. Hi, I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  01:39And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  01:42And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]JimmyThe Strata Community Association New South Wales' Code of Ethics is an interesting document. Not only does it have rules about how strata managers are expected to behave, but it lays out the principles for complaints and if you download their Code of Ethics, you will find a whole complaints form (which runs to about three pages), at the back of the document. It's a process where you complain about a strata manager, or an SCA service provider (because there are people who are not strata managers, but they provide services and they're members of SCA), or even owners who are members of SCA; you can put in a complaint about them.Sue  02:48What percentage of strata management companies are in the SCA?Jimmy  02:53I think it's the majority. I've always wondered why strata managers weren't in the SCA. I mean, obviously, you have to pay fees to join. I don't think it's that hard to become a member there. But,

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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 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 are on the records of strata schemes?Also on the podcast, we look at the drift back to offices from working from home, and ask if where we work will ever fully return to pre-pandemic patterns.And Sue gets a sneak preview of the upmarket renovation of the controversial Sirius building, which was once the public housing block with the best outlook in the world.That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00Do you get a lot of emails that you really don't want, Sue?Sue  00:03Quite a lot, Jimmy, quite a lot.Jimmy  00:05One or two a day?Sue  00:08Maybe about 30.Jimmy  00:10A day?Jimmy  00:11Today, we're going to talk about something that's been discussed on the Flat Chat forum, which is, should your strata manager or your secretary, give out all the email addresses for everyone in the building? We're also going to talk about working from home, as people might be facing a conflict of whether or not they want to do that anymore. And, we're going to talk about your visit to the Sirius building.Sue  00:11Yes.Sue  00:39Yes, probably one of Sydney's most high-profile apartment buildings.Jimmy  00:42It is. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  00:48And I'm Sue Williams. I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  00:51And this is the Flat Chat Wrap. [MUSIC]JimmyYou think everybody in an apartment block should be able to see everybody else's email addresses, is that right?Sue  01:14Yes, it is, because I think we have to be transparent and it can be so frustrating, trying to get in touch with neighbors, or there's a big issue, and you can't actually communicate with anybody else, so I think it's really important. I mean, I think the people who say we shouldn't give out our email mail addresses are always saying "oh, yes, we'll get 100 emails from all these people we don't want," but in reality, you get very few emails from other people in the building. You might get just a few every year, about issues that they feel are really important and I think it's important to try and keep in touch with your community, about those kind of issues, really.Jimmy  01:49So just to clarify, the law in most states says that owners in an Owners Corporation, are entitled to see all documents that relate to the Owners Corporation. In New South Wales, you are required by strata law, if you have an email address, to register it with the Owners Corporation. There is no requirement for that in Victoria and the law says that the owners are entitled to see anything that's on the register, which is the physical addresses of people. Often, those physical addresses are actually the addresses of their agents, or their registered business. So, there's a very good chance you could be sending letters to people and they don't get there.Sue  02:35That's right, because often, buildings won't allow you just to put a letter in somebody's mailbox; you actually have to post it, which seems ridiculous, if you're trying to get in touch with the person next door or something, that you have to go to the post office, buy a stamp, print out a letter, post it, wait for the post, which is a bit uncertain these days; it takes ages.Jimmy  02:55And there's also the fact that the people that you want to contact, may not actually be at that address,

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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 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), strata managers and RE agents haven’t been destroying people’s hopes, dreams and finances to anything approaching the extent and frequency of dodgy developers.So what will he be fixing that is seriously broken?  In the absence of a clear answer, we’ve speculated (which is much more fun, anyway) about what most needs attention in property services.And we ask what the Real Estate Institute of NSW is going to do, having walked away from the advisory committee, now that one of their own has been given the top job.FYI: The question was answered here, a couple of days after we recorded the podcast. Talking of David Chandler, we discover who is the first certifier to be struck off under the NSW Building Commissioner’s “get tough” regime, and why they’ve taken away his clipboard.And we take a look at vertical retirement villages that allow oldies to go up in the world rather than suffer a steady decline in less-than-splendid isolation.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00We have a new Property Services Commissioner, in New South Wales.Sue  00:04Oh, yes?Jimmy  00:05Appointed late last week.Sue  00:07I don't know much about him, do you?Jimmy  00:09I know a little bit about him, because he sent me a press release.Sue  00:12Oh, good.Jimmy  00:13So, we'll be having a chat about that. We'll be talking about a certifier who has been delisted.Sue  00:20That's probably the first one for a long, long time, isn't it?Jimmy  00:22Yes. I know a couple of them have resigned, but you've found a story about someone who has actually been struck off. And, we've got one for the oldies; luxury retirement apartment blocks. The old vertical village, becomes a retirement vertical village.Sue  00:43And, they look pretty amazing!Jimmy  00:45 Do they?Sue  00:45 I can't wait to get old!Jimmy  00:49You don't want to rush that, trust me! Okay, I'm Jimmy Thomson, and I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  00:57And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  01:00And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]Sue  01:16So, who is the new Property Commissioner, and what will he or she do?Jimmy  01:20Good question! His name is John Minns. According to the press release we got from Fair Trading last week, he brings more than 25 years experience as a real estate business owner and agent. Most recently, he was managing director of Canberra-based Independent Property Group and is a previous director of the Academy of Real Estate Services, where he worked to improve professional development and training opportunities. That's according to the Right Honourable Kevin Anderson, who is the Fair Trading Minister. Our regulars will remember that a few weeks (or maybe a month or so ago), they announced this expert panel for property services and it's full of people in building management, strata management, rental people, real estate... I think they've got short-term rental people in there, as well. They don't have tenants and they don't have apartment owners.Sue  02:29So, they don't actually have any consumers of these services?Jimmy  02:31There's no consumers. I mean, what would they know about living in...Sue  02:36That's a bit weird, isn't it? If you're wanting to improve something, wouldn't you actually liaise...Jimmy  02:42

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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 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 into our lives? (Yes.)  And how much are they? (A lot … plus GST.)NB: By “Big Brother” I mean the state snooping in the novel ‘1984’ by George Orwell, not the imprisonment of wannabe celebrities for our voyeuristic pleasure.And if you think this only applies to NSW, just wait. If it works it'll be coming your way before you know it.Anyway, a couple of minor corrections: You will find all the links to the various portals where you can post your observations and fill in your surveys here in this story on this website.And the fine for not updating your information will be up to $2200 not $2500 as only slightly mis-stated in the podcast.LISTEN HEREMeanwhile, as we emerge from our Covid cloud, it seems we can get back to Australia’s other favourite topic of conversation – apart from the weather – and that’s property prices.And to get your water-cooler chats going (are we allowed to have them yet?) Sue has discovered a city where apartment prices have gone up 25 per cent in the past year.  Want to take a guess which one?And finally, we discuss the measures in the new NSW short-term letting registry that should put paid to sneaky tenants sub-letting their apartments without their owners’ knowledge or permission.That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00Something big is happening in strata, in New South Wales.Sue  00:03Good! Is that a 'good' big, or 'bad' big?Jimmy  00:07That remains to be seen. Fair Trading is creating what they call a 'strata hub,' where they are putting together all the information they can gather about apartment blocks in the state and they're making it compulsory that every strata scheme has to provide a certain amount of information.Sue  00:29Is this coming from the Building Commissioner's office?Jimmy  00:31No, it's coming from, I think, Victor Dominello, who is a bit of a...Sue  00:38Champion of apartments.Jimmy  00:40I was going to say, a data geek.Sue  00:44Maybe, the two coincide, sometimes.Jimmy  00:46We'll be talking about that and we're going to be talking about some strange movements in apartment prices. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  00:57And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  01:00And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]JimmyOut of the blue last Friday (as often happens, just before the weekend), Fair Trading dropped a bombshell, which is that they are going to be conducting, initially, discussions leading to legislation... New regulations in strata, requiring strata schemes to, basically file all their details.Sue  01:43Is this out of the blue? I've never heard of this before.Jimmy  01:46Well, apparently, it's phase two of a three phase process.Sue  01:51What was phase one?Jimmy  01:52Phase one was the bond's thing, you know, the building bond.Sue  01:58What's phase three?Jimmy  01:59Phase three is; I'll just have a look! Phase three will expand Owners Corporation reporting to include further building compliance information, like the annual fire safety documents, being uploaded onto the web.Sue  02:19Wow, this is pretty immense.Jimmy  02:21Oh, there's phase four, in which we'll see the strata hub continuing to evolve, branching out to include information and community precinc..

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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.

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 “nefarious” we pick the pixels out of the strata laws surrounding CCTV and come up with a conclusion that many apartment residents may find alarming.LISTEN HEREBut before that, we look at the potential benefits of the creation of a new high-powered committee to come up with a plan to reintroduce construction insurance for new apartment blocks.And we look at the impact on apartments of NSW opening up to tourism just when a new registry of short-term rental accommodation – like Airbnb and Stayz - comes into force.In the discussion we speculate about what defines a “principal place of residence” and whether that would allow savvy owners and tenants to by-pass by-laws by only renting their flats at weekends.At first, Planning NSW defined “principal place of residence” as “the place where a person usually lives, and so most of their possessions and clothes would be there and usually their mail would be sent there also."We see that as a loophole through which you could drive a luggage trolley but since we recorded the podcast, NSW Planning has revised its view, as you can read in this story.We still think anti-STRA strata schemes will struggle with chancers who will break the rules until such times as they are caught. Maybe they should install CCTV.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00We've got a real mixture of topics this week. We've got the pretty major breakthrough on insurance; construction insurance for apartment blocks. We've got the Airbnb register, that you've got to be on, if you want to rent property on Airbnb.Sue  00:20Wow, is that finally coming in?Jimmy  00:23November 1st; people have got to be registered on it by. I don't know what happens if they're not on it after that; maybe, somebody comes around and...Sue  00:31That's incredible, because I never thought it was actually going to finally happen. It seemed to be kind of shelved, so many times.Jimmy  00:38But then, you know, Airbnb or short-term letting, kind of ceased to exist for a while, because of COVID. And then, there's a weird story that's come up through the forum, about CCTV, and who gets to view strata CCTV. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  01:05And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  01:08This is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]Jimmy So, the big news; there is a panel being set up, to establish a basis for insurance on apartment block construction.Sue  01:34This is fantastic! I mean, this is really big news, because it's been 18 years since any building over three storeys high, has been able to get home insurance...Home warranty insurance.Jimmy  01:49Yeah. Because they kept falling down.Sue  01:51Well, that's right.Jimmy  01:51They had so many defects and we've just had a survey out, that said just about half the new apartment blocks in New South Wales have defects. At least half, because it's become apparent that people are discovering defects in their buildings and just hide them; just don't want to report them, because they end up having to pay for them, because the developers just disappear. So, all that's going to change.Sue  02:20It is. I mean, this is the result of the government. Give them their due; appointing the Building Commissioner two years ago and he's been working quite hard to try and clean up the industry.

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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 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 discuss them topic by topic. We’re not just running the chat in full, end to end.But one of the problems, we discover, is the very low percentage of blocks that report problems when they discover themWe also get a sense of David’s frustration at the way NSW’s progress in removing and replacing flammable cladding is being compared unfavourably and, he says, unfairly with Victoria’s very different approach.And he answers the multi-million-dollar question ... should you even think about buying an apartment off-the-plan?Moving on, we examine a very real example of a building with defects issues, leading to it almost being evacuated last week.And we hear how apartment rents are starting to rise again as tenants take advantage of the inner-city slump to trade up to larger apartments in better areas.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00So, we're in the last stage of the road to freedom.Sue  00:05Yes, it's fantastic. We both have haircuts... I've been to the cinema.Jimmy  00:10Been double vaccinated, like 80% of people in New South Wales.Sue  00:15And Victoria is almost on the same trajectory as well. Just a bit behind us.Jimmy  00:20So, they've loosened some of the restrictions in New South Wales. Guess what difference that makes to living in strata?Sue  00:27You tell me, Jimmy!Jimmy  00:29Absolutely nothing. You still have to mask up on common property; you still have to wear a mask in the lifts. We're going to get more infections, because people are mingling more. I mean, 80% means that one person in every five, isn't double -vaccinated, which is two members of a football team. So, there's going to be a spike in infections, for sure, so we still have to take sensible precautions. Wearing masks; whatever your building manager, or strata manager, or committee, or next door neighbor tells you... You should still be wearing masks on common property, in apartment buildings.Sue  01:09And especially in confined spaces like lifts, I guess.Jimmy  01:12Yes, indeed. Moving on... Last week, I was invited onto the James Valentine afternoon show (on ABC 702), at the same time as David Chandler, the Building Commissioner for New South Wales, to talk about defects and a report by the Strata Community Association that has revealed that four out of every 10 apartments in our apartment blocks, over the last six years, has serious defects. So, he came on; James had a chat with him and I have cherry-picked some of the stuff that David Chandler says, so we'll be listening to that. We're going to hear about an apartment block, which might be one of those (may very well be one of those), which is teetering on the brink of evacuation. And, you're going to tell us some news, which is good news for property investors and possibly not such good news for tenants in apartments, because rents are going up. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  01:17And I'm Sue Williams, I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  02:00And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]JimmyAs I said before that inspiring music, I was on the James Valentine show last week and David Chandler was there, talking about defects and the Strata Community Association report that said 4 out of 10 new apartment buildings in New South Wales, have been found to have serious defects. So, James chatted to him and chatted to me,

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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 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 in terms of infections and hospitalisations.Plus we chat about the dangers of frustrated gym junkies rushing back and picking up their workouts and weights at the same intensity as they worked at before they were locked down.LISTEN HEREWe discuss at some significant changes on the Flat Chat website, including the fact that we have finally acquired the flatchat.com.au web address – losing the annoying hyphen between the “flat” and the “chat” – and the new menus that make it easier for readers to find the topics in which they are most interested.We look at a newspaper story about a building engineer who’s just been awarded an Order of Australia but several of whose projects have attracted the unwelcome attention of Building Commissioner David Chandler.We look at an owner whose been ordered to remove the tinting on their windows – the only thing that makes their main bedroom habitable – because it looks different from the other apartments in their block.And the resident who’s fallen out with their owners corporation who have not only hit him with a series of petty Notices To Comply, but charged him an admin fee for doing so.All that and more in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00It's Freedom Day in New South Wales (or, when you're listening to this, it will have been; yesterday).Sue  00:08I can't wait, because at the moment, it's tomorrow.Jimmy  00:11It's tomorrow, here in our little studio. You might be able to hear a storm brewing outside; I don't know if our filters will cut that out. If you hear gusting winds, that's what's happening. There's probably going to be a storm brewing in New South Wales, as well, if this loosening of restrictions creates an increase in COVID infections. We're going to be talking about that. We're going to be talking about big news in Flat Chat. We're going to be talking about a couple of issues in strata schemes, one of which has come up on the Flat Chat forum, and you've got some news about an investigation into an engineer?Sue  00:56Yes, that's right; an engineering firm.Jimmy  00:59We'd better get on with it. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  01:05And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  01:08And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]JimmyThe residents of New South Wales (or most of New South Wales), have been freed.Sue  01:29That's right.Jimmy  01:30So we can walk about outside without masks on; we can go to cafes and gyms and all sorts of things... Is it going to make a big difference?Sue  01:41Oh, let's hope not. I think the news was this morning, that first dose of the vaccination has hit 90% of people in New South Wales, so that's a lot. So hopefully, any kind of rise at all in the infection rate, will be dampened down by the number of vaccinations we've had, hopefully. I imagine the rest of the country is looking on quite keenly to see what happens here, because they obviously want a good news story for when they're coming out of restrictions, as well. Or, if you're in Queensland, or WA; if you've never really entered them.Jimmy  02:16Well, I have, funnily enough, for the first time actively gone looking for COVID-19 infection statistics, other than just waiting to see what we get fed by the government.Sue  02:28What did you find?

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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.

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 it another way, is it responsible, legally justifiable and safe not to do so?LISTEN HEREAlso we discuss the new leadership in NSW and whether it will make any difference to our lives with two of the three top Liberals in state parliament having been Fair Trading (or Better Regulation) Ministers.We look at warnings, as outlined in this story that, if we become global pariahs in terms of climate change, that could have a profound effect on interest rates and mortgages.And we delve into the dark and grey areas of property ownership where one owner is claiming common property as their personal parking spot, and another owners corporation wants the return of common property that the owner though was part of their lot.All that and much more in this week’s podcast.   TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00A few little changes, to the Flat Chat website, coming through. Because I had an SEO (search engine optimization), expert do a little analysis of the website for me. I've always been very suspicious of SEO people, because they're one of the spam things you get bombarded with. This guy's really, really good and so, it's going to be all about making it easier to find stuff (other than my witty headlines). You'll actually be able to go "oh, here's the thing about parking. This is how we'll find out about parking."Sue  00:37Okay. It makes it much more user-friendly, I suppose.Jimmy  00:40I think that's the idea. It's more user-friendly, rather than Jimmy-friendly, I think. So this morning, we're going to be talking about whether or not you can limit or restrict your facilities to vaccinated people only. We're going to be talking about the new leadership in New South Wales and what that means (if anything), to people in strata. We're going to be talking about how our position on global warming could affect your interest rates. And, we're going to be talking about people grabbing bits of property; common property, for their own personal use. That's a lot, isn't it?Sue  01:21It is. We better get on with it!Jimmy  01:23Better get on with it. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  01:29And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  01:31And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]JimmySue, we've touched on the issue of restricting common property facilities to people with double vaccination. Is it even possible? Can it be done?Sue  01:59Well, there are a lot of strata committees at the moment, discussing exactly that and they're kind of drafting bylaws now as well, to see if it can be done. I guess the proof is in the pudding, really. They're going to draft bylaws and then maybe, the antivaxxers might challenge that in court or NCAT and then they will actually finally get a definitive answer. I did a story about this, this week and I talked to barrister Richard Gration and he was saying (remember the Jo Cooper decision in the Court of Appeal about dogs)?Jimmy  02:32How can we forget?Sue  02:32He was saying that might affect owner's ability to pass those kinds of bylaws, because that case confirmed the limits to Owners Corporations' powers and it may well be that they might not be able to, but he basically feels that there is a chance and it's going to have to be  decided probably in court, at the end of the day.Jimmy  02:52

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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.

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 among friends.LISTEN HEREHowever, before we get to the Commish, first we will talk about another consumer-focussed innovation, a plan to get the big insurers back to the table.To be clear, insurance companies are still providing strata insurance for accidental damage etc in completed buildings, but they pulled out of insuring building defects nearly 20 years ago.NSW Fair Trading is hoping the efforts of David Chandler will shore up confidence in a hitherto benighted industry, to the extent that insurers will feel claims for defective work are the exception rather than the rule.Then we hear from the man himself and his plans to go on the front foot and “name and shame” not just sub-par buildings, but the professionals who have allowed them to be built that way.Then as a little light relief, JimmyT looks back at a “Strata of Origin” debate he refereed between strata lawyers in NSW and Queensland, at the end of which he asked which of each other’s laws they wished they had.You’ll hear (or read about) the NSW preferences in the podcast but Jimmy neglected to mention the Queensland strata experts were envious of NSW’s 2 per cent defects bond.Jimmy does, however, mention a couple of quirky strata laws from other states.And finally we look at the new Mirvac development at the former Channel Nine studios at Willoughby (not Chatswood as stated) and recall the night we went to dinner with recently departed newsreader Brian Henderson during which copious amounts of wine were consumed.That’s all in this week’s podcast.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00Bit of a David Chandler fest this week, Sue Williams?Sue  00:03Yes, well, it's been two years since he was appointed, so I sat down and had a chat with him about his term in office and what he's achieved, or what he's not achieved.Jimmy  00:12Okay, we'll be talking about that later. We'll be talking about (maybe), the big insurers coming back in and we'll be talking about a thing I did about the differences between strata law in Queensland and New South Wales. And, what's happening with the Channel 9 studios up in Chatswood (Willoughby)...Sue  00:32In Sydney.Jimmy  00:32That's a lot to get in, so we'd better get on with it. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  00:41And I'm Sue Williams, I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  00:43And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]JimmyOkay Sue, you did a big, big feature for Domain magazine; an interview with David Chandler. We will get into that later, but part of it was a thing about the big insurers coming back in to insure buildings. What's the story there?Sue  01:16I spoke to the Minister, Kevin Anderson. He was saying basically, David Chandler has done such a good job... He's really helping restore a lot of confidence back into the new apartments industry. Also, because he's had such wide-ranging powers, he's had the opportunity to really shut down buildings that aren't going well and make sure everything is going to be much better in future. He's introduced that tool to measure risk in buildings as well (which developers will sign up to), so that we can see their DNA; a building's DNA. So, he thinks there's so much confidence back now in the apartment industry, that insurers are now queuing up to come back to insure apartment buildings over three storeys high and as ..

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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.

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 Corporation network has outlined just how dangerously incompetent the NSW government’s approach to covid infections in apartment blocks has been.And the worst thing is the confusion it has created, with some buildings over-reacting to a potential threat, others fail to take it seriously at all, and a huge chunk of the strata community misses out altogether.LISTEN HEREMeanwhile we look at a story from the forum which reveals an issue that comes up much more often that you might expect: an owner taking over common property for their own benefit, increasing the size of their apartment and expecting not to have to pay for it.Then we look at how introducing some greenery into your strata life can lower your stress and make you a nicer person to be around in the last of our locked-down days (we hope).And finally, Jimmy has his annual pre-summer rant about balcony barbecues and discovers that a lot of the suggestions he made ages ago about limiting the smoke and smell intruding on other apartments – which were howled down by outraged neighbours and dismissed contemptuously by his block’s committee –  have quietly found their way into a code of conduct.That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy  00:00We had two picnics, this weekend.Sue  00:01Yes, we did! It was hard work, wasn't it?Jimmy  00:04It was very hard work, because there was a lot of people, down there in the park.Sue  00:08It was like Christmas Day, really. I think there was a real celebratory mood though, which was really lovely.Jimmy  00:12Yes, it was. There were people walking around; they'd take their masks off to eat and forget to put them back on again.Sue  00:20It kind of felt like we were out of a pandemic, when really, we've still got a bit to go, I guess.Jimmy  00:25And there was police wandering around, not bothering anybody. It was pretty good. I'm not a big fan of picnics, as you know. That's my two picnics for this year; possibly this decade.Sue  00:37And that's why it was such hard work, because Jimmy doesn't like sitting on the ground. We ended up having to cart five chairs, a table; and then we had knives and forks and plates and stuff, whereas most normal people would be happy with the little bag of sandwiches and on a rug for the ground...Jimmy  00:53But our friends said it was the best picnic they'd ever had, or maybe the fanciest picnic they'd ever had. It's not sitting on the ground that bothers me, it's getting up. That's the issue. Today, we're going to talk about the ongoing issues with notifications of infections of the COVID virus in apartment blocks. You've got a nice uplifting story about greenery and I'm going to dig into the forum, because there's a story that's come up there, that's really quite interesting and it's one that comes around quite a lot. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue  01:36I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy  01:39And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]JimmyThe Owners Corporation Network; the spokesperson on COVID, Jane Hearn, got an op-ed in the Sydney Morning Herald, this morning. It's basically saying the government has really dropped the ball, in terms of notifying residents of infections in their buildings and they're also being incredibly selective about which buildings they choos..

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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.