FLAT CHAT WRAP

This week, JimmyT and Sue Williams tackle subjects that range from the sinister to the sublimely ridiculous … with some practical advice for investors in between.Why won’t the government release the lists of the 444 buildings that have flammable cladding on them?Is it the risk of terrorism, as they say … or is it just potential vandalism … or the effect on property prices?Jimmy has his own conspiracy theory … and it sounds all too plausible.Then Sue explains why, when you are buying an investment, you should go for somewhere better than the place you live in.What!?!  How does that work?  Why should your tenants live in a better place than you do?And finally, they discuss the strangest raffle prize ever – a whole apartment block worth $6.4 million in sunny Queensland.At $10 a pop, it would have to be worth a shot … but then, as Jimmy explains, there could be a downside.That’s all on this week’s Flat Chat Wrap:https://episodes.castos.com/flatchatpod/Flat-Chat-47-Cladding-list.mp3If you want to subscribe to the Flat Chat Wrap and get new episodes as soon as they are posted (it's completely free!), click on this link for iPHONE and IPAD and this one for Youtube. You can also subscribe on  Castbox (our favourite Podcatcher) or here on Spotify.  And  if you like the podcasts, please leave us a rating - it helps people to find us.OTHER LINKS:Jimmy Thomson’s websiteSue Williams websiteJimmy’s Australian Financial Review columns

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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.

JimmyT thinks of changing the name of this week's episode to Hard Chat (but won't because he's scared of Tom Gleason) as he's going in hard on two very different targets.Firstly, he wants by-law breachers to either accept instant fines or face a 50 percent increase, or even more if they decide to challenge it at the Tribunal and lose. Harsh?  Not harsh enough, he reckons, for people who play the system so that only the victims and people doing the right thing are the ones that suffer.Then he thinks it's time the state government went after the developers who set out to build crappy apartment blocks then shut down their off-the-shelf company before they have to fix the many defects left behind by their shoddy work. "Sell their homes to pay for the repairs and put them in jail - that'll encourage the others to do the right thing."Finally, there's the ruling from Queensland where a magistrates court has overurned a strata commissioner block on an Airbnb ban in a gated  community.  The body corporate imposed the ban, the commissioner revoked it but the magistrate overturned the ruling because he believes the government wants communities to be able to set their own rules.And just as a side note, Jimmy takes issue with some anti-pet lobbyists who said he's been "played" by the pro-pet campaigners last week.Now that's hard! 

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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.

JimmyT was thinking of changing the name of this week's episode to Hard Chat  as he's going in hard on two very different targets (but won't because he's scared of Tom Gleason).Firstly, he wants by-law breachers to either accept instant fines or face a 50 percent increase, or even more if they decide to challenge it at the Tribunal and lose. Harsh?  Not harsh enough, he reckons, for people who play the system so that only the victims and people doing the right thing are the ones that suffer.Then he thinks it's time the state government went after the developers who set out to build crappy apartment blocks then shut down their off-the-shelf company before they have to fix the many defects left behind by their shoddy work. "Sell their homes to pay for the repairs and put them in jail - that'll encourage the others to do the right thing."Finally, there's the ruling from Queensland where a magistrates court has overurned a strata commissioner block on an Airbnb ban in a gated  community.  The body corporate imposed the ban, the commissioner revoked it but the magistrate overturned the ruling because he believes the government wants communities to be able to set their own rules.And just as a side note, Jimmy takes issue with some anti-pet lobbyists who said he's been "played" by the pro-pet campaigners last week.Now that's hard!https://episodes.castos.com/flatchatpod/Flat-Chat-46-Hard-Chat.mp3If you want to subscribe to the Flat Chat Wrap and get new episodes as soon as they are posted (it's completely free!), click on this link for iPHONE and IPAD and this one for Youtube. You can also subscribe on  Castbox (our favourite Podcatcher) or here on Spotify.  And  if you like the podcasts, please leave us a rating - it helps people to find us.

____________________________________________________


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 short and (hopefully) sweet Flat Chat Wrap this week with JimmyT flying solo as he looks at the clouds gathering over Airbnb and other holiday letting websites – and one ray of sunshine.The bright spot is Airbnb’s country pubs promotion which is bringing a bit of rural Australia into our homes … and maybe getting some of us out of the city and into the country. You can see some of the videos HERE.But the rest of the news is pretty gloomy for Airbnb and the other short-term holiday letting industry.As related elsewhere on this page, a major Airbnb-related (but not connected) management firm, AndChill, has gone bust with $3.6 million in debts.Then there’s the squeeze on holiday lets from insurers and the tax office, all exacerbated by the growing push for holiday let registers.Your home and contents insurance probably doesn’t cover you for damage done by (and to) holiday let guests.And the ATO is getting names and numbers from the sgencies to tell them who is letting flats, where they’re letting them and how much they might be making from them.Oh, and you might want to check if you have overdone the tax deductions for costs related to the flat you’ve been letting to holiday guests.It’s enough to drive a host to drink … preferably in a country pub.If you want to subscribe to the Flat Chat Wrap and get new episodes as soon as they are posted (it's completely free!), click on this link for iPHONE and IPAD and this one for Youtube. You can also subscribe on  Castbox (our favourite Podcatcher) or here on Spotify.  And  if you like the podcasts, please leave us a rating - it helps people to find us.OTHER LINKS:Jimmy Thomson’s websiteSue Williams websiteJimmy’s Australian Financial Review columns  

____________________________________________________


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 short and (hopefully) sweet Flat Chat Wrap this week with JimmyT flying solo as he looks at the clouds gathering over Airbnb and other holiday letting websites – and one ray of sunshine.The bright spot is Airbnb’s country pubs promotion which is bringing a bit of rural Australia into our homes … and maybe getting some of us out of the city and into the country. You can see some of the videos HERE.But the rest of the news is pretty gloomy for Airbnb and the other short-term holiday letting industry.As related elsewhere on this page, a major Airbnb-related (but not connected) management firm, AndChill, has gone bust with $3.6 million in debts.https://episodes.castos.com/flatchatpod/Flat-Chat-45-airbnb-squeeze.mp3Then there’s the squeeze on holiday lets from insurers and the tax office, all exacerbated by the growing push for holiday let registers.Your home and contents insurance probably doesn’t cover you for damage done by (and to) holiday let guests.And the ATO is getting names and numbers from the sgencies to tell them who is letting flats, where they’re letting them and how much they might be making from them.Oh, and you might want to check if you have overdone the tax deductions for costs related to the flat you’ve been letting to holiday guests.It’s enough to drive a host to drink … preferably in a country pub.If you want to subscribe to the Flat Chat Wrap and get new episodes as soon as they are posted (it's completely free!), click on this link for iPHONE and IPAD and this one for Youtube. You can also subscribe on  Castbox (our favourite Podcatcher) or here on Spotify.  And  if you like the podcasts, please leave us a rating - it helps people to find us.OTHER LINKS:Jimmy Thomson’s websiteSue Williams websiteJimmy’s Australian Financial Review columns  

____________________________________________________


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 JimmyT and Sue Williams look again at the issue of the overturning of the pet ban by-law in one of Sydneys biggest and poshest apartment blocks, in the wake of the warning by the committee that any pets brought in before the appeal is heard may have to be “put down”.Is it a valid threat as there is a window when there is no active by-law?  Lawyers at ten paces, we think.And what if the Appeals Tribunal says, yes, you can have a no-pets by-law … but not that one?  Are there now enough angry people in the building to block a new by-law?  This one could run and run.On the subject of votes and “overwhelming majorities”, we discuss scenarios where a 90 percent vote for or against something, can be very deceptive – with one example tuning out to be just 36 percent of owners, rather than the 90 percent claimed.At what point do Tribunal decision set legal precedents?  Not at the basic level, that’s for sure.  And do humans have an inalienable right to keep pets?  How about the right to choose to live in a building that doesn’t have them?In the future, will developers write into the strata management documents that a block is pet-friendly or pet-free?  The former seems more likely with between 30 and 60 per cent of Australian families owning pets.  Would you reall want to reduce your potential sales or rental market by about half?Sue reveals that Cunard cruise ships now allow pets on board and even have kennels for when Mummy and Daddy go ashore.Jimmy recalls the time he wrote a promotional video about taking pets on holiday for Tourism NSW – only for the launch to be abandoned when the then tourism minister was caught with his pants down, literally, at an office party.We discuss some of the strange things people put on their apartment block roofs – like vegetable gardens, chickens and bees – and whether you should speak up when you see someone behaving badly in your strata scheme.It’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.

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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.

SHOW NOTESIn this week’s podcast JimmyT and Sue Williams look again at the issue of the overturning of the pet ban by-law in one of Sydneys biggest and poshest apartment blocks, in the wake of the warning by the committee that any pets brought in before the appeal is heard may have to be “put down”.Is it a valid threat as there may be a window when there is no active by-law?  Lawyers at ten paces, we think.https://episodes.castos.com/flatchatpod/Flat-Chat-44-pets-bees.mp3And what if the Appeals Tribunal says, yes, you can have a no-pets by-law … but not that one?  Are there now enough angry people in the building to block a new by-law?  This one could run and run.On the subject of votes and “overwhelming majorities”, we discuss scenarios where a 90 percent vote for or against something, can be very deceptive – with one example tuning out to be just 36 percent of owners, rather than the 90 percent claimed.At what point do Tribunal decision set legal precedents?  Not at the basic level, that’s for sure.  And do humans have an inalienable right to keep pets?  How about the right to choose to live in a building that doesn’t have them?In the future, will developers write into the strata management documents that a block is pet-friendly or pet-free?  The former seems more likely with between 30 and 60 per cent of Australian families owning pets.  Would you reall want to reduce your potential sales or rental market by about half?Sue reveals that Cunard cruise ships now allow pets on board and even have kennels for when Mummy and Daddy go ashore.Jimmy recalls the time he wrote a promotional video about taking pets on holiday for Tourism NSW – only for the launch to be abandoned when the then tourism minister was caught with his pants down, literally, at an office party.We discuss some of the strange things people put on their apartment block roofs – like vegetable gardens, chickens and bees – and whether you should speak up when you see someone behaving badly in your strata scheme.It’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.If you want to subscribe to the Flat Chat Wrap and get new episodes as soon as they are posted (it's completely free!), click on this link for iPHONE and IPAD and this one for Youtube. You can also subscribe on  Castbox  or here on Spotify.  And  if you like the podcasts, please leave us a rating - it helps people to find us.OTHER LINKS:Jimmy Thomson’s websiteSue Williams websiteJimmy’s Australian Financial Review columns

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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.

Blame the bank holiday, the Rugby World Cup or the need for a break, but we thought we'd revisit our old friends at the fictional (or is it?) apartment block Dardanelle Towers, where suspicion of vandalism in the car park has fallen on an unlikely culprit.Parking, terrorism and a health scare dominated the most recent meeting of the Dardanelle Towers executive committee.The parking issue came to the fore when Bernard, our long-suffering chairman was heading off to work only to discover that the locks on his car had been super-glued. Bernard’s car, a Subaru Forester, was his pride and joy.He’d had problems in the past with people “accidentally” using his space because it was close to visitor parking, and blocking him in because it was close to the lifts, but this was the first time his car had actually been vandalised.Suspicion immediately fell on the occupant of 511 who is suing us (or being sued by us) in three different courts on three different issues, one of which is his perceived right to park his spare car in visitors’ parking on the grounds that he owns a share of it and visitors don’t. This, like the rest of his cases, seems to be related to his inability to read, understand or accept strata law and by-laws – or all three.In any case, 511’s involvement in the Uhu Incident (as it is now known) was quickly refuted when Mrs Alexander (the All-Seeing Eye) informed us that he had left the building at 6.45 am the day before and had distinctly been heard saying “International Airport”.Mrs Alexander had also noted that 511 had tossed his suitcase and carry-on bag into the boot of the cab with remarkable ease, suggesting, she said, that they might have been empty, which she found suspicious.Bernard remarked that he had seen 511 in the gym many times, which may have accounted for the apparent lack of effort. Elena noted that she often travels overseas with the minimum in her bags so she can fill them up with clothes bought overseas. Ms Tran concurred. She could get a complete season’s wardrobe in Hoi An for less than the Uber fare to the airport.Everyone looked at Lady Luckby, who never lets an opportunity for casual if ingenuous racism pass, but she said nothing. Mrs A had also gone very quiet, something that did not go unnoticed by Elena. Eventually, responding to Elena’s narrowing eyes, Mrs A confessed that she had considered 511’s activity bizarre enough to warrant a call to the terrorism hotline.Elena sighed in exasperation. Mrs A had done exactly the same when she saw her relatives gathering outside our building on their way to a Lebanese wedding. One cousin had been deported – he had only overstayed his visa by a week so he could be at the wedding – and the groom barely made it to the church (they were, like the majority of Lebanese in Australia, devoutly Christian).“You can’t be too careful,” Mrs A said, as she had at the time of the wedding fiasco. “This building could be a prime target.”“I know we have two blocks,” Bernard grumbled, “but we’re hardly the Twin Towers.” He was unusually grumpy but then he had every right to be. The glueing of his car had prevented him meeting a couple of important clients, not to mention the hassle and expense of replacing the locks.It was then that Jonathan said he had a confession to make. He’d had an unexpected visitor who may have caused some confusion in the car park.In truth, his visitor was only unexpected in that he hadn’t expected her to say yes when he invited her to come round for a drink. And he was absolutely certain that she hadn’t only turned up because he offered her safe overnight parking while she went to a friend’s hen party ... although she did only stay with him for one white wine spritzer and he didn’t see her again until lunchtime the next day when she needed to be let out of the car park.There was considerable amusement when everyone realised that Jonathan, the great keeper of the by-laws,

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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.

Blame the bank holiday, the Rugby World Cup or the need for a break, but we thought we'd revisit our old friends at the fictional (or is it?) apartment block Dardanelle Towers, where suspicion of vandalism in the car park has fallen on an unlikely culprit. https://episodes.castos.com/flatchatpod/Dardanelle-Towers-3.mp3 Parking, terrorism and a health scare dominated the most recent meeting of the Dardanelle Towers strata committee.The parking issue came to the fore when Bernard, our long-suffering chairman was heading off to work only to discover that the locks on his car had been super-glued. Bernard’s car, a Subaru Forester, was his pride and joy.He’d had problems in the past with people “accidentally” using his space because it was close to visitor parking, and blocking him in because it was close to the lifts, but this was the first time his car had actually been vandalised.Suspicion immediately fell on the occupant of 511 who is suing us (or being sued by us) in three different courts on three different issues, one of which is his perceived "right" to park his spare car in visitors’ parking on the grounds that he owns a share of it and visitors don’t. This, like the rest of his cases, seems to be related to his inability to read, understand or accept strata law and by-laws – or all three.In any case, 511’s involvement in the Uhu Incident (as it is now known) was quickly refuted when Mrs Alexander (the All-Seeing Eye) informed us that he had left the building at 6.45 am the day before and had distinctly been heard saying “International Airport”.Mrs Alexander had also noted that 511 had tossed his suitcase and carry-on bag into the boot of the cab with remarkable ease, suggesting, she said, that they might have been empty, which she found suspicious.Bernard remarked that he had seen 511 in the gym many times, which may have accounted for the apparent lack of effort. Elena noted that she often travels abroad with the minimum in her bags so she can fill them up with clothes bought overseas. Ms Tran concurred. She could get a complete season’s wardrobe in Hoi An for less than the Uber fare to the airport.Everyone looked at Lady Luckby, who never lets an opportunity for casual if ingenuous racism pass, but she said nothing. Mrs A had also gone very quiet, something that did not go unnoticed by Elena. Eventually, responding to Elena’s narrowing eyes, Mrs A confessed that she had considered 511’s activity bizarre enough to warrant a call to the terrorism hotline.Elena sighed in exasperation. Mrs A had done exactly the same when she saw her relatives gathering outside our building on their way to a Lebanese wedding. One cousin had been deported – he had only overstayed his visa by a week so he could be at the wedding – and the groom barely made it to the church (they were, like the majority of Lebanese in Australia, devoutly Christian).“You can’t be too careful,” Mrs A said, as she had at the time of the wedding fiasco. “This building could be a prime target.”“I know we have two blocks,” Bernard grumbled, “but we’re hardly the Twin Towers.” He was unusually grumpy but then he had every right to be. The glueing of his car had prevented him meeting a couple of important clients, not to mention the hassle and expense of replacing the locks.It was then that Jonathan said he had a confession to make. He’d had an unexpected visitor who may have caused some confusion in the car park.In truth, his visitor was only unexpected in that he hadn’t expected her to say yes when he invited her to come round for a drink. And he was absolutely certain that she hadn’t only turned up because he offered her safe overnight parking while she went to a friend’s hen party ... although she did only stay with him for one white wine spritzer and he didn’t see her again until lunchtime the next day when she needed to be let out of the car park.There was considerable amusement when everyone r...

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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 chat with journalist and author Sue Williams, including two old favourites – Airbnb and pet bans - and a brand new concept (to us at least) negative interest.Yes, you know all about negative gearing and you may have even encountered negative equity, but Sue was hearing about negative interest at a Property Summit sponsored by The Australian Financial Review and Commercial Real Estate.But before we get to that, do you get the feeling that the walls are closing in on Airbnb in Australia? It’s not just the new regulations being considered by the NSW government, now WA has come up with its own plans for holiday letting in the not-so-wild West (which you can read all about HERE).Which leads us to wonder, what was Victoria thinking when it basically handed over the keys to the high-rise kingdom to holiday letting landlords?  It’s not just about tourist dollars, we (okay, I) reckon the Victorian state government actively hates strata residents.Maybe they despise us because we are home owners, or because we have chosen to rent an apartment rather than a house like the one our parents used to live in.But wherever the complete lack of empathy comes from, apartment pioneers are making it easier for politicians to grow the city without having to build a new freeway every six months. A little respect and concern, please.Sue Williams, meanwhile, has tracked down a story that could mean the end of pet bans in all but a few apartment blocks in NSWAfter years of trying to overturn a blanket ban on pets in the huge Elan high-rise in Kings Cross, one owner there has finally had a win at NCAT. A senior Tribunal Member has decreed that the Elan’s by-law banning all pets under any circumstances (apart from assistance animals) is “discriminatory and oppressive”.Campaigners hope this will lead to all similar blanket bans across NSW being rescinded.  But what about the people whose religion or health concerns don’t allow them to live in the same buildings as animals?And finally Sue was at a Property Summit last week, where she found out all about negative interest.  That's where banks will basically pay you to take a loan with them, in the hope that you’ll stay with them when the ten-year fixed term runs out.Ten years of free money?  Sign me up now!  That’s all on this week’s Flat Chat Wrap Podcast.

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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.