FLAT CHAT WRAP

When Flat Chat started about 15 years ago, strata managers were (we thought) public enemy number one.  And it’s more than likely the feeling was mutual.We won’t go into a rehearsal of why that was, suffice it to say that things have changed … a lot.The industry has become more professional, standards have been raised and the quality of service – and mutual respect between strata managers and you, their clients – has gone up by leaps and bounds.OK, there are still some rogues out there and Fair Trading is pathetically weak when it comes to the tiny minority that gives the rest of the industry the lingering taint of a bad name.To date, I don’t think there has ever been a single strata manager who has been “struck off” for being really crap at their job.But this week, let’s not dwell on the negative when there are so many positives. In the podcast, I have long chat with Tim Sara – one of the senior strata managers with Strata Choice.Tim talks about the major challenges facing owners corporations, the successes he’s enjoyed and the disappointments he’s endured.He discusses why he thinks all committee members should be given a checklist of things they really should know and why office-bearers should be required to take some compulsory training if they want to stay in place after a couple of years.He talks about the difference between managing a large block where most people have never lived in strata before, compared to a small but dysfunctional one, where everybody has entrenched views (which would you choose?).He explains why he thinks strata committee members should be paid for their work (but only if they’ve had some sort of training) and what owners should do as soon as they move into their new block.He has some scathing opinions about NCAT and the “luck of the draw” when you take a complaint there.And, he gives a completely different impression of what the new breed of strata managers are like, especially compared to the “bad old days”.Have a listen.  It's very enlightening and a lot of fun.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 Castbox (our favourite Podcatcher).  And please leave us a rating ... especially if you like the podcasts.https://episodes.castos.com/flatchatpod/Flat-Chat-Wrap-24-Strata-Manager-tells-all.mp3

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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.

Jimmy T and Sue Williams explore the latest developments in the strataverse ... and come up with some very odd stories indeed.

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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.

A strange thing happened on the Flat Chat Statcounter a few weeks ago.  Statcounter is the software that tells us how many people are reading the website … (more than 4000 a week, if you must know, and still growing)Anyway, there was a whole bunch of searches from the NSW Department of Energy and the Environment, which sounds as Orwellianly conflicted as a Department of Peace and Arms Sales, to me.  But what do I know?I definitely don’t know why the Department of E and E would even be remotely interested in Flat Chat … certainly to the extent of reading page after page on the website.I mean, we are as into the environment as anyone, and apartment blocks do use energy (quite a lot, if truth be told). But we wouldn’t be anyone’s first call for advice about either of the Es.A couple of days later, all was revealed.  Former strata minister Matt Kean had been promoted to Minister for Es and, presumably, someone in his new department had been Googling his name to find out what he was like (as any sane person would).I’m afraid to say Minister Kean featured in these columns a little more often than he’d have liked, given the content of the pieces, so his new staff may have ended up with a non-impartial view of their incoming boss.Anyway, he's strata history and we have put a call into his successor, Kevin Anderson, for an introductory chat, albeit to no avail. We assume he is too busy juggling the various poisoned chalices that he has inherited as Innovation and Better Regulation Minister.One of those contentious issues is the Code of Conduct for short-term holiday lets – or Airbnb Rules, as they will soon be known - which is the bit of the new legislation that has been holding up the implementation of the rest of the law.Last week we predicted it would be the end of the year before we saw the new laws.  Then we heard they were already on the photocopy machines of Macquarie St, ready for a spellcheck and final release.The rules themselves are likely to be anodyne, worthy and dull.  It’s the dogfight that will follow, as the online holiday letting businesses try to stave off the spread of anti-holiday let by-laws, that will be really interesting.You can hear more about this on the latest Flat Chat Wrap podcast.https://episodes.castos.com/flatchatpod/Flat-Chat-Wrap-23-Code-of-conduct.mp3

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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.

There's a revolution in strata law on the way in Victoria. Fire sprinkler systems are  mandatory for mid-rise apartment blocks in NSW. And what's the best way to charge electric cars in strata schemes? JimmyT and Sue Williams discuss the issues of the week ...

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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.

When it comes to strata law reform, it can be a long time between drinks.Victoria is just at the end of the public consultation stage of their very substantial reforms to their strata laws and they still have a long way to go.  It will be interesting to see how many of the proposed changed in their draft reform Bill actually make it on to the statute book.We have predicted two years until they see any changes, but it could be less, given that they are notionally updating the existing Act rather than starting from scratch with a new one.  More realistically, it could be more.Take as an example the forgotten law that will have a profound effect on strata living in NSW: the Short Term Holiday Letting law proposals - or the Airbnb laws to name them after the business model that prompted them.We have just heard on the grapevine that the new short-term letting laws could be proclaimed as early as next monthThe development of that new legislation began back in June 2015, prompted by concerns from Balmain Greens MP Jamie Parker that his constituents were being threatened with $1 million fines for running illegal bed and breakfasts, taking bookings through this new-fangled online internet booking system called Airbnb which purported to be encouraging "sharing".A committee looking into the "Adequacy of the the Regulation of Short-Term Holiday Letting in NSW" started hearing public, business and local government submissions in 2016, and issued a report in 2017.That was pretty much tossed out in early 2018 and replaced by a more Airbnb-friendly proposal in late 2018 which was then, at the last minute, canned in favour of the only laws in Australia that allow apartment blocks to decide not to allow short-term holiday lets via by-laws.So that went to Parliament and was approved, subject to a mandatory code of conduct.  The law awaits proclamation (meaning it's a law rather than just a good idea)  because the code still to be agreed upon.  Meanwhile a round table of vested interests arm wrestles over what constitutes good or bad conduct.We have just heard on the grapevine that they could happen as early as next month but that would still mean the laws were more than four years in the making. It's very hard not to reach the conclusion that certain self-interested bodies have no desire to see these laws enacted any sooner, as they could seriously hamper their business model.I mention this because that is one aspect of one law related, in part, to strata living.  The Victorians have until May 10 to give the government their two cents worth on their proposals, which cover a huge variety of issues across the whole spectrum of their strata laws.Then that has to be considered, chewed, digested and, eventually, presented again as a concrete proposal after the various major and minor players have flexed their political powers in efforts to protect their vested interests.Two years?  Victorians should be so lucky.You can here the Flat Chat podcast about some of the proposed strata law changes here:https://episodes.castos.com/flatchatpod/Flat-Chat-Wrap-22-New-Vic-laws.mp3  

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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.

With property prices plummeting across our major cities, JimmyT and Sue Williams identify where apartment values are plummeting, where they're holding and where off-the-plan purchasers are being told they can't walk away from new units that are worth less than they agreed to pay for them when the signed the contracts.

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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.

It’s fair to say that this is probably not the best time to be a property owner.  And if you are an investor in multiple units, your woes could be multiplied.On the other hand, if you are a renter, now could be the time to sign up for a long-term lease at a lower rent … if you can find oneThere are so many factors assailing property prices, it’s hard to see a clear way forward. This week in the Flat Chat Wrap, property writer Sue Williams takes us through some of the areas where the market is dropping – and a few where it’s holding its own.Property values are cyclical – what goes down will, eventually, go back up again - something we tend to forget in extended periods of price rises such as we have just witnessed, especially in Sydney.And competing arguments just don’t compute.  How can there be too many people in our cities when there seems to be an over-supply of properties? How can prices be going down when demand must be going up?And how can our politicians bang on about housing affordability and then attack each other for measures that might reduce property values?But then there are th poor blighters who put down a deposit to buy off the plan when prices were at their highest, who are now having to pay the balance on the purchase when their unit is worth  a lot less than the contract price.Can they just "burn" the deposit and walk away from the purchase?  No, say some developers,  a deal is a deal and they can't afford to carry the loss on hundreds of new units.From negative equity, to negative gearing.  How will property values and rents be affected if Labor win the next election?All of this is discussed at length in our latest podcast – including the view from one of Australia’s most successful property developers that negative gearing could be here to stay, even if Labor win.Also, Sue exposes the latest rort in apartment development – how builders get essential services installed for free  … provided apartment owners blindly sign contracts carrying inflated fees for years and years.You can hear all about it here or, even better, subscribe (for FREE) on iTunes,  Castbox, Stitcher, Spotify or your favourite Podcatcher.https://episodes.castos.com/flatchatpod/Flat-Chat-Wrap-21-Property-panic.mp3

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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 and Sue Williams ask the big questions about the new strata minister ... like, who is he? Plus the best and worst of Australia's strata laws and what makes an ordinary pet a "support animal".

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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.

Fancy a 400 sqm penthouse with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, two parking spaces plus uninterrupted city and parkland views … for only $1.19 million?Interested? Why wouldn’t you be? This place also as a huge gourmet kitchen, timber floorboards, a massive tiled terrace and a fully fitted home office.What’s the catch, you ask. Well, this particular penthouse is atop a boutique hotel … in Tamworth.Now, your next question might well be, why are we looking at bargain basement penthouses in the country music capital of Australia?And the answer is, Tamworth is where our new strata minister, Kevin Anderson, scoots his boots.In this week’s podcast, Sue Williams and I ask what the member for this fine country town – and we mean ‘country’ in every sense – is doing looking after the serious needs of the two million people who live in strata in NSW.Tamworth would only have apartment blocks three storeys high, if at all, we speculated. Turns out we were wrong: they are mostly two storeys high.Apart, that is, from this absolute snip at 3/52-58 Brisbane St, in the heart of the home of the golden guitar (thank you, realestate.com.au).We found the Tamworth penthouse when we were looking for the tallest residential building in the city that sings with a cry in its voice.And it occurs to us that, apart from this one (and most unit blocks in Sydney), being lower than three floors means every apartment block in Tamworth could conceivably qualify for Home Warranty Building Insurance.Flammable cladding?  Tell the builder to rip and replace, pronto! Opal-style crumbling walls?  Well you better git yo’ sorry ass in gear and uncrumble them, toot sweet.*Does this disqualify Minister Kevin Anderson from running the Ministry of Innovation and Better Regulation, which runs Fair Trading, which runs strata?Now, the new Minister for Bells and Whistles will have a lot on his plate, from dodgy mechanics and dangerous kettles and toys, to tattoo parlours, real estate agents, liquor licenses and yoga salons, so he can’t be expected to get up to speed on a mere bagatelle like, say, how half the population of Sydney will be living in 10 years.Which means the Mandarins of Fair Trading will be running the strata show for the next four years.  And that’s another good reason for buying that pad in Tamworth.NB:  Just because we couldn’t find a high-rise in Tamworth via the internet doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist.  All we are saying is, Pyrmont, Potts Point, Wolli Creek, Botany and North Sydney, this ain’t.You can listen to the Flat Chat podcast here:https://episodes.castos.com/flatchatpod/Flat-Chat-Wrap-20-new-minister-2-.mp3*I know! Ca ne fait rien.

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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.

Jimmy Thomson and Sue Williams take a wry - and slightly bruised - look at what's attracting mail to the Flat Chat Forum.

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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.