FLAT CHAT WRAP

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is “discriminatory and oppressive”.Campaigners hope this will lead to all similar blanket bans across NSW being rescinded.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.https://episodes.castos.com/flatchatpod/Flat-Chat-43-Airbnb-pets-property-summit.mp3You can subscribe to the Flat Chat Wrap and get new episodes on your phone, tablet or computer completely free as soon as they are posted – just 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 or wherever you download your podcasts.  And if you like our podcasts, share them with friends and, if you can, leave us a review and rating .  Thanks for listening.

____________________________________________________


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.

For years I have been struck by the irony of the connection between communication and community falling asunder at the doors of apartment blocks.If there was anywhere that not only needed an internal communications system – and probably contained higher than average numbers of people able to grasp the fundamentals – it would be modern apartment blocks.People have experimented with Facebook pages and dedicated websites – but as soon as the people who set them up get fed up with having to run it, or cop more than their fair share of abuse from the block’s whingers – it all falls apart.Then, a couple of years ago, along came Stratabox (one of our sponsors).This week, I went along to co-founder Paul Chevrot’s house so who could explain what Stratabox is, how it works and who’s it for.Basically, it’s an online platform where you can put all your records, by-laws and basic building information, plus you can have virtual committee meetings, vote on issues, and raise complaints about things that need fixed or even neighbours who are misbehaving.You can book a move in or out of the block or use of facilities, discuss issues long before there’s a vote, and chat about the outcomes of decisions that have been made.You can alert your strata committee or strata manager to problems or canvass other owners about possible solutions (rather than hoping someone on the strata committee actually understands, rather than having your choices limited by the extent of their knowledge and experience.One of the interesting things that emerged from our chat was that Paul doesn’t expect every subscriber to use every aspect of the platform.  Just because it has everything you might need to help your committee run your block smoothy and efficiently, doesn’t mean you have to use all its facilities.You can sign up for a free trial of Stratabox right HERE or by clicking on the ad on the Flat Chat pages.By the way, apologies for the sound quality on the recording which occasionally makes me sound as if I’m at the bottom of a well.  Poor acoustics, inadequate equipment and pilot error all contributed.It’ll be better next week, I promise. 

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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.

For years I have been struck by the irony of the connection (or lack thereof) between communication and community and how it seems to fall asunder at the doors of apartment blocks.If there was anywhere that not only needed an internal communications system – and probably contained higher than average numbers of people able to grasp the fundamentals – it would be modern apartment blocks.People have experimented with Facebook pages and dedicated websites – but as soon as the people who set them up get fed up with having to run it, or cop more than their fair share of abuse from the block’s whingers – it all falls apart.Then, a couple of years ago, along came Stratabox (one of our sponsors).This week, I went along to co-founder Paul Chevrot’s house so who could explain what Stratabox is, how it works and who it's for.Basically, it’s an online platform where you can put all your records, by-laws and basic building information, plus you can have virtual committee meetings, vote on issues, and raise complaints about things that need fixed or even neighbours who are misbehaving.You can book a move in or out of the block or use of facilities, discuss issues long before there’s a vote, and chat about the outcomes of decisions that have been made.You can alert your strata committee or strata manager to problems or canvass other owners about possible solutions (rather than hoping someone on the strata committee actually understands, rather than having your choices limited by the extent of their knowledge and experience.One of the interesting things that emerged from our chat was that Paul doesn’t expect every subscriber to use every aspect of the platform.  Just because it has everything you might need to help your committee run your block smoothy and efficiently, doesn’t mean you have to use all its facilities.You can sign up for a free trial of Stratabox right HERE or by clicking on the ad on the Flat Chat pages.By the way, apologies for the sound quality on the recording which occasionally makes me sound as if I’m at the bottom of a well.  Poor acoustics, inadequate equipment and pilot error all contributed.It’ll be better next week, I promise.You can listen to the podcast right here.https://episodes.castos.com/flatchatpod/Flat-Chat-43-Stratabox.mp3You can subscribe to the Flat Chat Wrap and get new episodes on your phone, tablet or computer completely free as soon as they are posted - just 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 or wherever you download your podcasts.  And if you like our podcasts, share them with friends and, if you can, leave us a review and rating .  Thanks for listening.

____________________________________________________


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 write and talk a lot about property developers in Flat Chat – not often in positive terms – but we rarely get the chance to hear their side of the story, at least, untainted by promotional spin for some new project or another.So it was a pleasure to sit down recently with Chris Johnson, CEO of the Urban Taskforce, and get his views on what is happening in the world of apartment development for the Flat Chat Wrap podcast.Chris is the former State Architect for NSW and Urban Taskforce represents the top developers in the country, so he knows a fair bit about the subject.  On top of that, he is as passionate about apartment living as we are – although from a slightly different perspective.The discussion in this week’s podcast is wide-ranging and occasionally surprising.We can’t ignore the issue of defects in new buildings, not least because of the damage that has done to public confidence.  It could take years to recover but Chirs believes the only way is up – literally – as cities reach their physical and geographical limits.He believes the days of the McMansion are numbered, partly because you can’t fit any more houses into the space available but also because there's a sea change in public thinking.We are moving away from the “I, me, mine” mindset into more collaborative, sharing communities, he says.  He cites a development in Roseberry where there is a childcare centre right on the ground floor, so it obviously attracts families.However, those families take it a stage further, with parents taking turns to host “play dates” where all the kids can go to different unit blocks each of which has its own playground - yes, they have children's playgrounds - and swimming pools that they don't have to worry about maintaining.  It certainly gives the lie to the old thinking that apartments are no place for young families.You can find out more about that in an Urban Taskforce publication about why people love apartment living.Elsewhere in our wide-ranging discussion, Chris muses about why registration of architects and engineers wouldn’t have prevented the crisis at the Opal building – the internationally known architects and engineers on that project would “get registration with their eyes closed” – and why a return to council-based certification wouldn’t have prevented the issues in the Mascot Tower (it was certified by the local council).However, Chris does think there’s merit in a continuing “duty of care” from builders to apartment owners while making every contractor and sub-contractor take responsibility for their work in the construction of an apartment block.He also thinks the “missing middle” in home building is unlikely to be filled with town-houses, if only because of the flawed economics of replacing a single dwelling with two terraced houses.Instead he foresees a spread of European style, medium-rise, four or five story blocks – small enough not to lose human scale and deter communities but tall enough to merit installing the lifts that down-sizing baby boomers will demand.There’s all that and more in this week’s podcast.You can subscribe to the Flat Chat Wrap and get new episodes on your phone, tablet or computer completely free as soon as they are posted - just 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 or wherever you download your podcasts.  And if you like our podcasts, share them with friends and, if you can, leave us a review and rating .  Thanks for listening.

____________________________________________________


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.

Are you a locust or a bee?  Those are the divisions appearing between residents in Australia as many of us move from the more acquisitive, self-centred lifestyle typified by the McMansion in the suburbs, to a more communal, sharing way of life that you increasingly find in apartments.In this week's podcast we talk to Chris Johnson, CEO of the Urban Taskforce, who predicts a more communal way of life as more of us move from houses into apartments.Chris is the former State Architect for NSW and Urban Taskforce represents the top developers in the country, so he knows a fair bit about the subject.  On top of that, he is as passionate about apartment living as we are – although from a slightly different perspective.The discussion in this week’s podcast is wide-ranging and occasionally surprising.We can’t ignore the issue of defects in new buildings, not least because of the damage that has done to public confidence.  It could take years to recover but Chirs believes the only way is up – literally – as cities reach their physical and geographical limits.He believes the days of the McMansion are numbered, partly because you can’t fit any more houses into the space available but also because there is a sea change in public thinking.We are moving away from the “I, me, mine” mindset into more collaborative, sharing communities, he says.  He cites a development in Roseberry where there is a childcare centre right on the ground floor, so it obviously attracts families.However, those families take it a stage further, with parents taking turns to host “play dates” where all the kids can go to different unit blocks each of which has its own playground.  It certainly gives the lie to the old thinking that apartments are no place for young families.You can find out more about that in an Urban Taskforce publication about why people love apartment living.Elsewhere in our wide-ranging discussion, Chris muses about why registration of architects and engineers wouldn’t have prevented the crisis at the Opal building – the internationally known architects and engineers on that project would “get registration with their eyes closed” – and why a return to council-based certification wouldn’t have prevented the issues in the Mascot Tower (it was certified by the local council).However, Chris does think there’s merit in a continuing “duty of care” from builders to apartment owners while making every contractor and sub-contractor take responsibility for their work in the construction of an apartment block.He also thinks the “missing middle” in home building is unlikely to be filled with town-houses, if only because of the flawed economics of replacing a single dwelling with two terraced houses.Instead he foresees a spread of European style, medium-rise, four or five story blocks – small enough not to lose human scale and deter communities but tall enough to merit installing the lifts that down-sizing baby boomers will demand.There’s all that and more in this week’s podcast.https://episodes.castos.com/flatchatpod/Flat-Chat-42-Chris-Johnson.mp3You can subscribe to the Flat Chat Wrap and get new episodes on your phone, tablet or computer completely free as soon as they are posted - just 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 or wherever you download your podcasts.  And if you like our podcasts, share them with friends and, if you can, leave us a review and rating .  Thanks for listening.

____________________________________________________


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 the Flat Chat Wrap podders look at the ridiculous cost of parking spaces, the new forms of flat-sharing and we finish off our chat with Jane Hearn about the proposed short-term letting register – and why Airbnb hates it so much.First up, JimmyT and Sue Williams talk about why parking spaces are no longer at such a premium (despite one that previously sold at auction for $260,000 coming up for sale).People who live near transport hubs don’t need cars as much as they used to and the flawed economics of paying for a lump of steel to sit in a car space all week, waiting for you to maybe go for a drive, just don’t add up, especially when there are car-sharing services like Go-Get literally on strata owners doorsteps.We also touch on parking space sharing and an innovative idea being trialled in multi-story car parks in Brisbane, where empty floors are turned into overnight shelters for homeless people, complete with showers, toilets, security and even hairdressers.And talking of homelessness, we kick the tyres of a couple of other innovative ideas – next generation boarding houses and co-living spaces.In both cases, these are blocks where studio units are smaller than normal – with tiny kettle and microwave spaces and small bathrooms – but that’s compensated by large shared kitchens and social areas and other facilities like gyms and swimming pools.As Sue reports, even luxury apartment developer Crown are looking at getting into co-living in a big way, with plans to add value to the communities with gym, cooking, yoga and music classes.  In fact, CEO Iwan Sunito thinks these classes are such a good idea he plans to look at extending them to his residential apartment blocks.One downside Sue discovered with the co-living and next-gen boarding houses already operating in Sydney is that many of the properties are already listed on holiday letting ewebsites like Airbnb.So much for easing the affordable housing crisis!And on the subject of Airbnb, in the second part of their conversation, Jimmy and Jane Hearn, vice-chair of the Owners Corporation Network, explore why the online letting agency is against the proposed register.We can guess why – a register would expose all the illicit lets, as has occurred elsewhere in the world, with Tokyo seeing a drop of 80 per cent in listings when a register was brought in there last year.But will it stick?  Not without serious penalties and measures to allow owners corporations to check on how the apartments in their buildings are being used, say our podders.  And that may be a bridge too far for our pro-Airbnb, anti-apartment resident politicians. 

____________________________________________________


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 the Flat Chat Wrap podders look at the ridiculous cost of parking spaces, the new forms of flat-sharing and we finish off our chat with Jane Hearn about the proposed short-term letting register – and why Airbnb hates it so much.First up, JimmyT and Sue Williams talk about why parking spaces are no longer at such a premium (despite one that previously sold at auction for $260,000 coming up for sale).People who live near transport hubs don’t need cars as much as they used to and the flawed economics of paying for a lump of steel to sit in a car space all week, waiting for you to maybe go for a drive at the weekend, just don’t add up, especially when there are car-sharing services like Go-Get literally on strata residents' doorsteps.We also touch on parking space sharing and an innovative idea being trialled in multi-story car parks in Brisbane, where empty floors are turned into overnight shelters for homeless people, complete with showers, toilets, security and even hairdressers.And talking of homelessness, we kick the tyres of a couple of other innovative ideas – next generation boarding houses and co-living spaces.In both cases, these are blocks where studio units are smaller than normal – with tiny kettle and microwave spaces and small bathrooms – but that’s compensated by large shared kitchens and social areas and other facilities like gyms and swimming pools.As Sue reports, even luxury apartment developer Crown are looking at getting into co-living in a big way, with plans to add value to the communities with gym, cooking, yoga and music classes.  In fact, CEO Iwan Sunito thinks these classes are such a good idea he plans to look at extending them to his residential apartment blocks.One downside Sue discovered with the co-living and next-gen boarding houses already operating in Sydney is that many of the properties are already listed on holiday letting websites like Airbnb.So much for easing the affordable housing crisis!And on the subject of Airbnb, in the second part of their conversation, Jimmy and Jane Hearn, vice-chair of the Owners Corporation Network, explore why the online letting agency is against the proposed register.We can guess why – a register would expose all the illicit lets, as has occurred elsewhere in the world, with Tokyo seeing a drop of 80 per cent in listings when a register was brought in there last year.But will it stick?  Not without serious penalties backed by measures to allow owners corporations to check on how the apartments in their buildings are being used, say our podders.  And that may be a bridge too far for our pro-Airbnb, anti-apartment resident politicians.You can listen to it right here:https://episodes.castos.com/flatchatpod/flat-chat-40-Parking-co-living-and-Airbnb.mp3If you want to subscribe to the Flat Chat Wrap and get new episodes on your phone, tablet or computer 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 or wherever you download your podcasts.  And if you like our podcasts, please leave us a review and 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.

Just when you thought it was safe to dip your toe into the Airbnb discussion, it turns out the proposed new laws are not what they seem. The 180-day cap on whole-home lets  can be extended by your local council, there’s a mysterious 21-night option that doesn’t count against the cap and Airbnb is gearing up to fight really tough fire safety regulations (which are fine by Stayz, by the way). This week’s podcast welcomes Deputy Chair of the Owners Corporation Network Jane Hearn who gives us a fascinating insight into the loopholes and pitfalls lurking in the new short-term holiday letting regulations that are currently up for discussion. It’s an interesting perspective. The government has allowed itself to be corralled into focussing on the social impact of holiday lets – noise and disruption – at the expense of, arguably, more serious issues like the impact on rents, housing availability and the “hollowing” of our cities where prime properties are given over to holiday lets. It’s quite clear that the Government’s attempts to mould one-size-fits-all regulations into the various needs of rural, coastal, inner city communities, living in houses and apartments, is likely to make no one happy. The influence of outside forces on the liveability of our homes seems to be of zero concern compared to the revenue from tourist dollars.  Once again, apartment residents are a cash cow for the government, or perhaps we are geese whose golden eggs are staring to crack like jerry-built apartment blocks. One thing to come out of the podcast is for everyone who doesn’t want short-term letting in their buildings and who doesn’t have a holiday letting by-law on their books to get one now. The OCN has devised an off-the-peg by-law that you can buy for a fifth of the normal fees – and this one will stick through any legal challenges the online letting agencies can throw at them (it says here). But seriously, once the regs are in place, the next battleground for apartment blocks will be by-laws and you can bet that any strata building that that doesn’t already have one, and where short-term lets are a growing issue, is suddenly going to find 25 percent of owners rocking up to general meetings, in person or by proxy,  to make sure that mothership in San Francisco doesn’t lose any prime properties that can be kept open. Does that sound a little bit paranoid? Look at the 300-plus identical Astroturf (fake grassroots) letters already sent to Planning NSW to object to the regulations we are now discussing. And if Crazy JimmyT doesn’t fire you up, have a listen to Jane Hearn – a calm voice of experience and reason that will scare the proxies off you! Finally, you can make your submission to the discussion process by going to the Planning NSW portal.  Don’t wait – you only have till September 11.

____________________________________________________


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.

Just when you thought it was safe to dip your toe into the Airbnb discussion, it turns out the new laws are not what they seem.The 180-day cap on whole-home lets can be extended by your local council, there’s a mysterious 21-night option that doesn’t count against the cap and Airbnb is gearing up to fight really tough fire safety regulations (which are fine by Stayz, by the way).In this week’s podcast JimmyT welcomes Vice-Chair of the Owners Corporation Network Jane Hearn who gives us a fascinating insight into the loopholes and pitfalls lurking in the new short-term holiday letting regulations that are currently up for discussion.It’s an interesting perspective. The government has allowed itself to be corralled into focussing on the social impact of holiday lets – noise and disruption – at the expense of, arguably, more serious issues like the impact on rents, housing availability and the “hollowing” of our cities where prime properties are given over to holiday lets.It’s quite clear that the Government’s attempts to mould one-size-fits-all regulations into the various needs of rural, coastal, inner city communities, living in houses and apartments, is likely to make no one happy.The influence of outside forces on the liveability of our homes seems to be of zero concern compared to the revenue from tourist dollars.  Once again, apartment residents are a cash cow for the government, or perhaps we are geese whose golden eggs are staring to crack like jerry-built apartment blocks.One thing to come out of the podcast is for everyone who doesn’t want short-term letting in their buildings and who doesn’t have a holiday letting by-law on their books to get one now.The OCN has devised an off-the-peg by-law that you can buy for a fifth of the normal fees – and this one will stick through any legal challenges the online letting agencies can throw at them (it says here).But seriously, once the regs are in place, the next battleground for apartment blocks will be by-laws and you can bet that any strata building that that doesn’t already have one, and where short-term lets are a growing issue, is suddenly going to find 25 percent of owners rocking up to general meetings, in person or by proxy,  to make sure that mothership in San Francisco doesn’t lose any prime properties that can be kept open.Does that sound a little bit paranoid? Look at the 300-plus identical Astroturf (fake grassroots) letters already sent to Planning NSW to object to the regulations we are now discussing.And if Crazy JimmyT doesn’t fire you up, have a listen to Jane Hearn – a calm voice of experience and reason that will scare the proxies off you!Finally, you can make your submission to the discussion process by going to the Planning NSW portal.  Don’t wait – you only have till September 11.You can listen to the Podcast right here:https://episodes.castos.com/flatchatpod/flat-chat-39-Jane-Hearn-part-1a.mp3If you want to subscribe to the Flat Chat Wrap and get new episodes on your phone, tablet or computer 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 or wherever you download your podcasts.  And if you like our 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.

This week the Flat Chat Wrap podcast is all about conflict and various forms of resolution … including revolution.First Sue Williams and I take a look at we take a look at mediation and what it actually means. In NSW and Queensland, mediation is an obligatory precursor to asking for an adjudication at your state tribunal.In Victoria it kind of is too, but isn’t really.  It’s called conciliation there, and is more of a recommended option than an obligation. How much it harms your case if you don’t even try to resolve it, is hard to say – depends on who is hearing your case at the tribunal, probably.For many people involved in disputes, it’s just a box to be ticked off before you put on the boxing gloves and get in the ring for the real fight.Others turn up, fired up with righteous indignation, clutching a sheaf of by-laws and print-outs from the Flat Chat Forum, only to discover the mediator is more life coach and less umpire than they would like.In short, unless the respondent in your case is prepared to concede defeat because they can sense failure and humiliation at the Tribunal, you are either going to have to cede some ground yourself, or gird your loins for phase two of the fight.And it has to be said that I many cases the other side of the argument doesn’t even show up.  Why? Because they don’t have to.Moving on, we discuss how to get rid of a “despotic, neurotic and psychotic” chair of an apartment block – and again it’s different in all the states.In NSW you have to pass a special resolution at general meeting to remove any or all of the owners from a committee.  However, the committee can replace any office-bearer just by voting another of their number into the role.It’s similar in Victoria but in Queensland the general meeting chooses the office-bearers even before they elect the committee.  That means only a general meeting can sack an officer of the body corporate.Oh, and there’s a couple of quirky rules that don’t exist anywhere else that can get you kicked off a committee in Queensland.And finally, introduced by a song from Groucho Marx, Sue meets architect Daniel Meszaros who has collected a whole bunch of crazy objections neighbours put up to prevent developments and turned them into cartoons that you can see HERE.

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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.