Podcast appearances and mentions of jimmy thomson

As many of you may already know, every second Tuesday, JimmyT goes on ABC Radio with James Valentine on his Afternoon show to chat about apartments. Last week, Jimmy and James took calls from listeners about what you can and can't put on balconies, compulsory training for strata committees, tradies who block car spaces, and car lifts that break down.They also heard from one gentleman who hates strata and everything to do with it. As usual, it's a lively segment, so we thought you might like a taste of what you get on the radio.Jimmy is on with James on Tuesday afternoon, June the 3rd at 2pm. Why not send them a text on 0467 922 702 or call on 1300 222 702 and ask a curly question of your own. And you can hear more of James (without Jimmy) on ABC Afternoons.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 second part of Lawyer in the Hot Seat, recorded last week, strata legal eagle David Bannerman fields questions from Flat Chat's Jimmy Thomson about a range of issues, starting with what is vexatious litigant and how do you deal with them?Then there's the matter of disputes between neighbours and whether or not the strata committee should get involved - and what they can and should do if they go down that road.We look at embedded networks, how they are used to rip off apartment buyers, who should be warning strata newbies about them, and the very simple way purchasers can make sure it doesn't happen to them.And finally there are webinar viewers attendees' questions. That's all (only without the pictures) in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 what has become an annual event here on Flat Chat, this week we were invited on to a webinar run by leading strata lawyer (and Flat Chat sponsor) David Bannerman for the Q&A session that we call Lawyer in the Hot Seat.In it we discuss such diverse issues as Lithium battery safety, a Vegepod balcony plant system that's been banned becasue it's not in keeping with the look of the building, the surprisingly widespread problem of mould and explore the vexed question of underperforming committee members.This is a long session so we have split it and will run the other half next week.  There's a lot in it because, as is the nature of strata, one answer leads to a Jenga stack of other questions. You can check out the Bannerman's website for a stack of strata-related information____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 week's podcast covers a wide array of topics, from your thoughts on strata committee training, and the ups and downs of the property market to common myths about strata managers.  And we'll throw in a reference to photography as well.We have a look at Amanda Farmer's survey into strata owners' thought on training for strata committee members.  We won't do too many spoilers but it's worth hearing what you, the owners and tenants really want.Then we look at how volatile the building industry has become, with record number of small builders going out of business while the government's housing targets seem to be as out of reach as ever.Then we have a chat about some of the main myths about strata managers, as highlighted by Bobby Lehane, CEO of the Pica Group.And we give a nod to a photograph that accompanied one of Sue's stories about boarding house residents being evicted to make way for luxury houses in Sydney's Paddington.All in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 Wrap is back with a look at sustainable apartments and the reality of spending a bit more to make a unit cheaper to live in.The latest message is that even if the average ‘green' unit costs $11k more, it will save you heaps of money… and salve your conscience too.We also uncover two worrying trends in one of our states where developers are loading up strata committees with their employees – ignoring any allegations of obvious conflicts of interest.Meanwhile, apartment owners seem blissfully unaware that there may be any potential problems. “They say they're going to take care of defects and it's in their best interests to do so, isn't it?”Well, is it?  Or are there some developers who are more concerned with profits than their reputations – since they can change their names any time they like?And finally we look at the conundrum of increased immigration putting pressure on the housing stock versus the need for skilled migrants to build more apartment blocks.Is temporary accommodation in migrant camps the answer? Make them attractive places to stay – they don't have to be like prisons. And would it be any worse than migrants having to share a two-bed flat with a dozen other renters?That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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.

Did you know that getting on for 4.5 million Australians live in strata? And who do you think comprises the single largest demographic group, from singles and couples through to one-parent families?Can you even take a wild guess at the total value of strata properties in Oz, or what percentage of strata schemes don't have strata managers?This week we take a deep dive into the latest Australasian (it includes NZ) Strata Insights report from UNSW and SCA.By the way, we got ourselves into a bit of a fankle over the Nepali language, which we mispronounced “nepawlee” rathere than “nepa-ly”, and which we partially correctly said was Nepalese – as in, the official language of Nepal.In fact, Nepali is spoken by more than up to 20 million people, mostly in Nepal and neighbouring parts of India. Smaller speech communities exist in Bhutan, Brunei, and Myanmar. And in Melbourne too, it seems.We also take a quick check on what the various political parties are offering by way of tackling the housing crisis and we talk briefly about why it's such a surprise to see one of our apartment developer giants exposed in the news.That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 lot going on in the strata sphere this week, starting with the Sydney Morning Herald's big expose on building defects.It's well worth reading but it's funny how every time a new reporter writes about this stuff, it's treated as if it's just been discovered.Speaking as people who have been on this beat for two decades, we are just glad that the issues are being aired again.Meanwhile strata managers nationally want to know why apartment buildings have been excluded from the multi-billion-dollar boost for solar panel battery storage. By the way, in the podcast we erroneously referred to solar panels, not batteries, as a sharp-eared listener has pointed out.  And we dig into the three-way fight over commission payments between owners (in the shape of the Owners Corporation Network) plus the Australian Consumers Insurance Lobby (ACIL), strata managers, and strata insurers.   That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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'd love to ignore the election but we can't, so this week we look at what our nation's political parties are offering apartment buyers and renters as we hurtle towards polling day.Everybody agrees we need more housing – and that means more apartments – but the policies differ, including one that an economist has dubbed “the worst economic policy of the 21st century.” And we look at Victoria where the state government is pushing through a no-nimby policy to force councils to accept low-rise apartment blocks.We have a chat about Strata Community Association, the strata managers' peak body's call for national protection for apartment owners from defective buildings.And we look why rents of apartments are rising faster than rents of houses, and where this is happening, including one holiday letting hotspot that's been hit by a 60-night a year limit. That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 are getting into two of the topics that cause most angst in apartment living, this week: pets and buying property.Firstly, we take a spin around the question of landlords in NSW no longer being able to ban renters' pets for no good reason – and how that will affect the more than 50 per cent of apartment residents who are tenants.This is a question I asked in the Sydney Morning Herald: Will our apartment blocks suddenly be awash with furry friends? Or will property investors – confronted by the other regulation changes, both recent and impending – decide “stuff this for a game of Monopoly” and sell up or switch to Airbnb and its ilk?Then we look at a story Sue wrote for Domain (also in the SMH) about how she went looking to find a new flat for a temporarily overseas friend with the instruction to spend up $1million.What's it like flat hunting for a friend, knowing that if you have made the wrong suggestion that's a million bucks worth of misery for them and you?That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap?____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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.

Last week we said that Strata Community Association NSW  - the states' strata managers' professional body - was in disarray.  Objecting to that negative characterisation, NSW President Robert Anderson agreed to come on to the podcast and answer a few questions.We had no shortage of those. For instance, we asked what the changes at SCA-NSW are. Has SCA-NSW been getting it wrong? Is there a new philosophy or culture, following changes on the SCA-NSW board?Are the changes in the standard agency agreement a recognition that there was something wrong with the previous much maligned version or is it just to comply with changes in legislation?What does SCA-NSW have to do to regain owners' trust? What about training for committee members? Who should do it: SCA, the Owners Corporation Network (OCN) or Fair Trading?And finally, will the SCA continue to claim that it represents owners? It's a slightly longer than usual session and the sound quality is OK but, thanks to the interview being conducted over Zoom, not up to our usual tip-top standards.Enjoy.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

This week we look back at what has been described by some lawyers as one of the most significant legal decisions of the 21st Century – right up there with Donald Trump's court losses.We are talking about the “Jo Cooper” decision five years ago which said strata schemes couldn't impose blanket bans on pets. So many strata schemes have pets these days that it feels like dog and cat ownership is almost compulsory – and no, the sky hasn't fallen in and so far, no frail or elderly person has been savaged to death by marauding chihuahuas.We will also be looking at how the state government is claiming that its moves to ban rent bidding have meant rents have gone down.  And hearing why they are likely to start rising even faster.And we will be answering a question that was asked on radio on James Valentines Afternoons on Tuesday (click here and whizz forward to 1h 35mins) – do you need to have a second, separate laundry sink when you move your washing machine and drier into your renovated kitchen?That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 long-awaited report into what has become known as the Netstrata Scandal came out last week – too late for the podcast – so we bring it to you in all its glory this week.Fair Trading NSW have, unusually for them, hopped in with a fairly strident comment and Netstrata has responded with vehement denials of wrong-doing and assurances that anything than needed fixing has been fixed.You can find our report on the McGrathNicol findings HERE, the McGrathNicol report HERE,  Fair Trading's response HERE,  and the Netstrata reaction HERE. So what's the truth?  We have had the dubious pleasure of owning in a strata scheme managed by Netstrata and seeing the way they work at close hand.What are they really like?  Listen to this week's Flat Chat Wrap to find out.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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's podcast looks at the renewed concern about the effect of short-term holiday lets on affordable housing, following City of Sydney's request to the state government to change the laws to curb Airbnb and its ilk.Last week CoS said about 1000 homes would come back into the residential rental market in central Sydney alone if the government put limits on commercial STHL operators. And we hear rumours that a Victoria-style tax is being considered, with the proceeds going to build new homes.And can we trust an Airbnb survey that says people who can let their homes all year would just shutter them, rather than return them to the residential market?And speaking of new homes, the government has fast-tracked planning approval for a number of high-rise blocks that will house 8000 families.But are they building communities?By the way, the news about the Netstrata report came in after we had recorded the podcast so we will definitely pick that up next week.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 podcast this week is almost entirely taken up with the new laws that passed the other day in the NSW parliament. We won't see most of them kick in until later in the year, but the effects could be immediate.Dodgy contracts that could see off-the-plan sales rescinded might be being rewritten as we speak.Building managers and strata committee chairs might well be asking what they have to change to fulfil requirements to act in the best interests of strata schemes.Developers' low-ball estimates of levies for new blocks might be getting pumped up a little if a $55k fine could be imposed for deliberately underquoting.But the one unanswered question – in the podcast, at least – is what form the Strata Taskforce is going to take and how it will operate.Such are the vagaries of online publishing that we answered that question in this story, after we had switched off the mikes. But we can have a chat about that next week.And finally, we welcome our new sponsors Strata Community Insurance to the Flat Chat fold. Insurance is all about risk, but we reckon SCInsurance is a safe bet.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 wonder whether the announcement of fines for strata managers who don't reveal the various deals and relationships they have with developers and service providers signals a sea change in how NSW Fair Trading regards strata professionals who play fast and loose with the facts.Quite clearly, this is a response to the revelations last year about how Netstrata allegedly hid insurance commissions from its clients. But is it enough?Netstrata is not the biggest strata management company involved in this, nor, in all likelihood, will it be the worst offender. Will we ever find out? Manwhile, strata schemes should not be mistaken in thinking it's your strata manager – the one who turns up at your AGM who will be fined.This is about the companies, large and small, whose culture has evolved from support and service to profits at all costs. Your strata manager is only doing what their job description dictates.Also in the pod, we look at a new drive to build homes specifically for essential service providers like nurses, cops and firies.We discuss the likely impact of the new releases of designs from the NSW pattern book for low-density apartment blocks.And we mull over what should be done about a spare chunk of common property that has been annexed by an enterprising owner.That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 ask why it is that, while the so-called Arrow decision has established that pre-sale strata contracts are invalid, some developers can get away with signing them.As raised by our friend Francesco Andreone at GoStrata, what needs to be done to the laws to stop this pernicious exploitation of strata owners' lack of knowledge and experience?  And why do we apartment owners have to risk our money in taking developers  to court to re-litigate these cases every time they turn up.On a lighter note, we ask how over-50s would cope with having to share homes again.  Sure it would help with loneliness and isolation, as well as being financially prudent.  But what would other Boomers' behaviour do that drove you mad?And finally, Flat Chat has a new media outlet and a whole new readership (we hope) who have missed out on our 20 years of fighting the good fight for strata owners and residents.That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 seems strata may have a new pantomime villain (like we need one).  This week we look at multi-millionaire developer of fancy pants apartment blocks Tim Gurner.He once shocked an economic conference by saying the country needs 40-50 per cent unemployment.If that wasn't bad enough it's alleged he was the first public figure to draw parallels between young people eating smashed avocado and not being able to afford to buy a home.Now this Melbourne developer of luxury apartments, and some of his customers, are in conflict as defects start to surface in his uber-fancy St Moritz block in the Victorian capital.It's not so much how the mighty have fallen (because he hasn't) as how the prices have fallen, and in a rising market.But before that, we look at the new regulations for strata managers that come in nest week (Feb3) and wonder how much difference they will really make.And finally, Jimmy comes up with his radical plan to build more affordable apartments, saying that affordable luxury is impossible but liveable affordability may be the way forwardIf you can tolerate a bit of noise from your neighbours, and one lift instead of two, surely apartment blocks could be built more cheaply without the risk of them falling down. That's all in the Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 half of Australia still in holiday or hangover mode, and half of Sydney stuck on a railway platform somewhere, this is a short and (we hope) sweet Flat Chat Wrap podcast this week.First, we look at a new trend in affordable and comfortable co-living, which already exists in two completed blocks in Sydney, with another one on the way.Then there's the revelation that the price gap between houses and apartment narrowing dramatically, as houses get a bit cheaper and apartments get dearer.And finally there's news of a new and possibly trend-setting addition to a planned apartment block which will doubtless get tongues and tails wagging with its direct appeal to dog owners.That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 are back in the saddle for the new year with the news that the NSW government has come up with a new way of tackling the bureaucracy and red tape that's holding back housing construction – by adding what looks like another level of bureaucracy and red tape.To be fair, the intentions are good. Maybe more really is less, and the new Housing Delivery Authority will accelerate the construction of “State Significant Developments”, especially in areas ripe for development but where Nimbys rule the roost. We shall see.However, one of the more remarkable achievements around this is that the government has managed to announce this without even mentioning one significant and controversial word.Also we hear about the apartment residents who turned their harbour view flat into a huge, expensive New Years Eve event venue … only it wasn't their flat. And we point the fingers at the Sydney residents who have taken Nimbyism to a new low – kicking locals who are already down and permanently out.That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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.

Looking forward to 2025 involves a certain amount of looking back. So we wonder this week what will happen, if anything, as a result of the long-delayed outcomes of investigations into Netstrata in particular or strata management in general. And we look at the proposed new strata laws for NSW.  Jimmy speculated that the least likely to make it all the way is the plan to bring strata contracts under Australian Consumer law.Why?  Because the parties with the most to lose – Strata Community Australia and the NSW Attorney General's office – are pretty powerful voices.And we look at our poll on what Flat Chat readers like most about the proposed changes.There's a clear split between laws that affect existing owners and buyers but there's one proposal that will affect everyone in strata that stands out from the crowd.That's all in this week's and 2024's final Flat Chat Wrap____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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.

From the scandals around Netstrata - and the harsh scrutiny all strata managers have faced as a consequence - to the departure of Building Commissioner David Chandler, 2024 was a huge year in strata.We look at those events as well as the roller-coaster rides for apartment owner clients of two now notorious strata managers who have found it just too easy to convince NCAT members to do exactly what they want, rather than what apartment owners need.In fact, we ask the question, is the NCAT tribunal so ill-equipped to deal with strata issues that it is actively undermining Fair Trading's efforts to improve public confidence in apartment living. And finally, we highlight a new build-to-rent development in the heart of Sydney which will allow long leases and pets, but remove toxic strata committees, rampant rent increases and the threat of Airbnb displacing residential renters.Ooops! In the podcast we said we were going to mention two ambushes in the Four Corners TV episode that brought Netstrata to book.  We talked about Stephen Brell but forgot to mention former Strata Commissioner John Minns.  However, we covered him in detail last week, so you're not really missing out. ____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

This week we say farewell to former Strata Commissioner John Minns who has decided to quit, despite a months-long inquiry into allegations of conflict of interest finding nothing untoward.Jimmy had a long chat with him (off air) which he relates in the podcast, covering his frustrations during his tenure and his fears for the future – not least who will take over his role.The we turn our sights on NCAT – the NSW Tribunal which seems to be doing more to undermine efforts to build confidence in strata than all the dodgy developers and suspect strata managers combined.Can we trust a body that has untrained Members making decisions about our lives when many of them clearly don't know or care about strata? Separate to the point of being in opposition to Fair Trading, the whole Tribunal system is clogged with regurgitated cases that could and should have been dealt with at the first time of asking. Justice delayed is justice denied – and that applies in strata too.And finally it's time to inject some pre-festive cheer with a story of owners who would rather share their new apartment block with low-income tenants, than live in an ivory tower.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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.

Our deadlines meant we missed the chance to talk about the new strata laws proposed for NSW in last week's podcast but that has given us time to think about the proposals and what they mean.For instance, is compulsory training of strata committee members a good or bad thing?Will fear of having sales contracts rescinded deter developers from using embedded networks to save money and cheat their apartment buyers?Will heavy fines stop them from underestimating levies to make their apartment sales unrealistically attractive?Will coming under Australian consumer law mean the end of one-sided strata manager contracts?We can only touch on a few aspects of the proposed new laws but you can find out more about them HERE  … after you have listened to this week's podcast, of course. ____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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.

Three big stories get most of our attention in this week's podcast.Firstly there's the publication of the new Guide to Strata Living, which earns some praise, but a few brickbats from JimmyT.  You can judge for yourself HERE, where there are also links to the actual guide for you to download.Then there's the recent attack on unfair strata management contracts by eminent construction lawyer Bronwyn Weir.  And, once you've listen to the podcast, you might want to read more about it HERE and HERE (with links to the original ABC news story).Two years ago, Jimmy wrote that apartment blocks in Victoria were rotting from the inside.  Now a report by the strata government's Cladding Safety Victoria has confirmed that half the buildings they inspected were doing exactly that. You can read about it HERE.And finally, would you leave a spare key with someone, in case of emergencies? Should it be compulsory?  That's all in the Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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've been catching up with all the strata stories that emerged while we were away – and there's a lot of them, covering just about every aspect of apartment living.The plan to boost Sydney's night time economy with 24/7 bar openings has alarmed well-heeled resident so Circular Quay (according to this video on the Sydney Morning Herald website).And there's more angst over noisy gyms which we first highlighted in this podcast and Sue's SMH story before we left for Europe.We discuss why strata schemes are way behind free-standing homes when it comes to installing solar, prompted by this story.  Does it have something to do with embedded networks and devious developers?We look at a renewed push to wash away outdated and anti-sustainability by-laws that forbid drying laundry on balconies.And we wonder if councils could be doing more to encourage the inclusion of creative spaces in new apartment blocks, following this report.That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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.

Can you imagine paying $30,000 a night for a pad in London? Yes, that's thirty thousand dollars, in case you thought it was a misprint.And this is in a city that has its share of homelessness and has had to introduce a 90-night limit on short-term holiday lets to combat the drain on residential properties caused by platforms like Airbnb and their ilk.Also in Britain, a government survey has revealed how many previously unidentified apartment blocks still have potentially fatal flammable cladding, more than seven years after the Grenfell disaster.Meanwhile the contrast in Australian political approaches to the housing shortage – lack of supply or excess of demand – was brought into stark relief by the result of the US presidential election. One side said it was a failure of investment, the other that it was caused by immigrants. Spoiler alert: Donald Trump will be back in the White House until J D Vance slips an overdose of moonshine and opiates into his diet Coke then announces he was secretly a liberal all this time.Seriously though, as we discover, even a socialist republic has trouble building apartments ordinary people can afford (unless you're Aussie – then they're a bargain).This week's podcast is the last to be recorded on our travels and is a bit shorter than usual, not least because we were cramming the last of our journalistic tasks in between trying to make the most of our dwindling days in France.Next week we'll be back to whatever passes for normal in strata.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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.

Your intrepid Flat Chat team's travels take them to London this week but that doesn't mean they have lost touch with what's happening in Australia.For a start a boost to funding for tenants' supports agencies has been announced by the NSW state government.  That will no doubt be very useful when the inevitable confusion arises from the raft of changes to tenancy laws, passed by state parliament last week, come into effect in the new year.That doesn't just help tenants. As Jimmy says, if landlords or even owners corporations want to know what renters' rights and responsibilities are, check the websites that offer advice to tenants and you'll know exactly where they are coming from.Then we have the latest apartment prices from the last quarter with Queensland outstripping Melbourne.And finally, a sad story that has a bit of everything: A pregnant mother of five falls from a tenth-storey window, a boyfriend with a criminal history, conspiracy theories on the internet and a miracle of survival.But seriously, if as Sue says, you find the story disturbing or know someone who does need advice and support, you can always call Lifeline on 131 114 or go online HERE.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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's podcast comes to you from less-than-sunny Glasgow, which may explain the slightly different sound quality.But the chat is up to its usual standards as we speculate on what new Building Commissioner James Sherrard will bring to the job as he fills the substantial shoes recently vacated by the redoubtable David Chandler.Then we have a look at the recent revelations about Netstrata allegedly slipping old receipts and invoices into their strata schemes' portals. This has led to some strata owners realising for the first time how much extra they have been paying for compulsory insurance, thanks to hidden brokerage fees and commissions.And we speculate on what the next strata scandal will be – the potential misuse of “full delegation” clauses in contracts, which allow strata management firms to take over the running of strata schemes with little or no consultation with their owners.That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 are so many issues it strata that are “he said, she said” - or “they said, they said”, to put it in a more contemporary context –  that the temptation to not take sides is sometimes overwhelming.But consider the plight of an owner on the first floor of a block who has a noisy commercial gym operating from 6am until after 7pm every weekday.Then add in the fact that most of her strata committee's members live several floors away from the noise are undisturbed and therefore unperturbed.And, for the cracked and uninviting icing on the strata cake, the role of chair and secretary has been taken by a strata management firm that's rapidly becoming synonymous with shady practises. Should commercial gyms ever be allowed in strata buildings? The local politicians and council officials who can't see any problem don't spend nearly enough time in gyms, or strata for that matter.Also, this week, we use the excuse that we are travelling overseas to look at how the anti-Airbnb backlash is spreading, the form it's taking and how a TV ad campaign is hitting the global holiday rental platform right where it hurts – in the big lie about “sharing”.That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 lot of anger and frustration behind this week's edition of the Flat Chat Wrap.The fury on display on a recent episode of A Current Affair on Nine is both clear and understandable.Prospective owners in the Sapphire apartments in Gosford on the Central Coast of NSW had been told to be ready to move in, only to discover that work has stopped on the near-complete block and there is no occupancy certificate.The developer has long ago gone into receivership and the Receiver says they don't have the finances to complete the building, which would include a slate of defect rectifications identified by the NSW Building Commission.Jimmy and Sue discuss how this mess came about and if anything can be done to remedy it.And they also have a chat about whether strata managers are entitled to be angry at Press coverage. It's never ideal when good professionals are tarred with the same brush as bad operators. But is it a case of “don't shoot the messenger”? That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 getting your attention, there's nothing quite like being warned that the latest innovation could put you out of business.Okay, we've heard it all before, but imagine if a friend was able to access a reliable response to a strata question instantly, wherever you happen to be. And we're not talking technical, jargon-ridden geeky stuff. If you everyone was able to get an instant answer to a normal question, like what to do about an annoying but scary neighbour, that could put paid to Flat Chat and especially the Flat Chat Forum.That's why this week's podcast started with an experiment over a glass of red (or two) in a pizza restaurant. The results were fascinating, for good and bad reasons, so don't be put off by the fact that we're talking computer stuff.Leading on from that, we look at how spectacularly wrong an AI survey was when asked what you get for your money in real estate.And that in turn takes us to where rents are rising fasts – and not at all – across Australia.Lots to think about, as ever, in this week's Flat Chat Wrap. ____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 been a tough few months for strata managers, especially the good ones – and there are many of them – who have been trying to do the best they can for their customers while the industry as a whole has been exposed to strident and mostly valid criticism.The irony for the honest and decent players is that they have been copping the additional scrutiny and suspicions directed at the whole industry without reaping the financial benefits of their vertically integrated, conflicted and less scrupulous rivals.Coincidentally, we recorded this week's podcast with friend-of-the-Wrap Tim Sara, Associate Director of Strata Choice, our sponsors and one of the original strata management firms, on the morning that the NSW government announced it had passed the new laws on conflict of interest, insurance commissions and transparency in strata.Strata Choice has turned its back of vertical integration in recent years, to concentrate solely on its core business - strata management.So we had a chat about that, as well as the  the idea of split first AGMs, how to make strata communities better, and asked who would make a better strata manager – a former hotel concierge or an ex-cop?Notwithstanding some technical audio difficulties (which we hope have been cleared up by our podcast platform Buzzsprout's Magic Mastering), this message from the other side of the strata divide is well worth a listen.  Enjoy. ____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 start this week's podcast by looking back at the previous episode which has broken all our records for regular downloads.It's not surprising really, given that it was a chat with ABC TV Four Corners investigative reporter Linton Besser about how and why he pulled together the Strata Trap report.At more than 450 downloads after only a week, this one will run and run, as they say in showbiz.This week we look at another of strata's big problems – defects – through the eyes of Acting Building Commissioner Matt Press.  What's happening with defects now that Building Commissioner David Chandler has retired?One thing that hasn't changed is the Building Commission's tendency to use initials,  acronyms and fancy techie terminology. So, just in case you are wondering, the “LDI” referred to means Latent Defects Insurance or it could be DLI (Decennial Liability Insurance).Either way, it's a 10-year insurance against defects that the better developers are able to take out. Maybe they could call it Defects Insurance. Too on the nose?Apart from that, Matt Press assures us that even though David Chandler has gone and Project Intervene has been absorbed into the Building Commission's complaints process, the good work in making sure apartment owners get what they paid for continues unabated.That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap. ____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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're rolling the Wrap out a little early this week because it's connected to the hottest topic in strata right now.Linton Besser, the reporter who brought you the Four Corners report The Strata Trap on Monday, has come on to the podcast to answer our questions about what he's found in the strata industry, not only in NSW, but across Australia. What questions? How about what piqued his interest in the story that led to the exposure of strata management firm Netstrata and the resignation of its General Manager Stephen Brell as President of Strata Community Association (SCA-NSW)?Linton admits he almost ignored the story when the first email landed in his in-tray.  But when another came in a few days later, he thought he might start digging.That led to the 7.30 report on Netstrata and that sparked a tsunami of tips and complaints that led, in turn, to the Four Corners episode.The podcast is a wide-ranging chat about the culture of the strata business  – not just in NSW – that leads to big strata management companies believing they can act with impunity while apartment owners are left “incoherent with rage”.Everyone from complacent politicians to apathetic media operators cops it in this fascinating chat, but he does think some strata managers are suffering too and believes, despite it all, that there is a solution.That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 your cooking and heating appliances giving your kids asthma? This week in the Flat Chat Wrap, Sue talks about a story she's been chasing where families have found that switching from gas to electricity for their heating and cooking appliances has seen their kids' asthma disappear.As we head for net zero emissions and electricity becomes the affordable power source of choice, you might want to start checking your pots and pans to see if they work on induction stoves.Before that, with Spring definitely in the air, we're turning down the heat in the podcast this week as we examine why the majority of tenants – especially younger ones – are in favour of the Victorian government's incoming regulations about insualting homes being introduced nationwide – and why two-thirds of landlords are against them. Then there's a question of what to do in strata when a number of owners want one thing and an exactly equal number don't.And when we say “equal”, we mean that the unit entitlements on one side add up to precisely the same figure on the other.As this story plucked straight from the Flat Chat Forum explains, it has led to a strata stand-off in one small Sydney block.And finally we look at how an ailing RSL club has been turned into not just one of the coolest venues in a booming Sydney suburb, but one of the hottest properties on the apartments scene.That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 been considerable speculation about NSW Strata Commissioner John Minns this week after the revelation on an ABC news report that he has retained a significant holding in a property management company, albeit through a family trust.Is it a serious problem for the man tasked with overseeing strata management (among other things), especially in the wake of the Netstrata scandal?Or is it just an unfortunate embarrassment at a time when NSW Fair Trading has launched new legislation intended to boost transparency and combat conflicts of interest? We give that question a good kickaround in the playground.We also look at the new legislation in Victoria which imposes a 7.5 per cent levy on short-term holiday rentals and allows apartment blocks and local councils to curb Airbnb and the like. (We can't help having a good chortle at Airbnb's typically left-field response).And we have a serious disagreement on whether the reduction in student visas is going to help ease the housing crisis or is just a response to the dog-whistle politics of racist right-wingers.That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 look at why a problem in a company title block .would have been much easier to resolve had the apartment been in a strata building.The story in the Sydney Morning Herald is about a 71-year-old woman who has had to move out of her home because of damp caused by faulty water pipes in common property.We explain why that problem could have been much more easily resolved had it been in strata.We also touch on the recent albeit modest recruitment drive in the Strata Commission,  and the areas where the profits from selling apartment are outstripping the gains from flipping houses.And finally, Jimmy asks whatever happened to Strata Commissioner John Minns' brilliant idea to have a two-stage First AGM for new strata buildings so that strata committees have time to examine the contracts and reject those that are designed to rip them off.NB: This was recorded and posted before accusations aired on the ABC that John Minns had not told the government that a family trust had retained substantial shares in a property management company called IPG.  We'll cover that in this week's podcast. ____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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.

So the NSW Fair Trading Minister has revealed his law changes in the wake of the Netstrata scandal and they are, as one strata insider put it, like being slapped on the wrist with limp spaghetti.With the news hot off the printer, Jimmy jumped in with both feet to claim this is a pretty poor response to the revelation that apartment owners are being misled and ripped off by some of the people whose job it is to look after them.Admittedly, this was recorded before he got the response from Fair Trading that you can read here. Maybe it will all make more sense once everyone has calmed down but for now Jimmy is ropable, which if nothing else makes the podcast more entertaining.Also in the pod this week, the “wellness” benefits of buying the most expensive home in Australia.And the areas in your state and across Australia where you are least likely to find apartments that are designed with the health of their residents in mind (according to Dr Sarah Foster of RMIT University in Melbourne).That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

Having been to more conferences that they've had Ubereats deliveries – and with drawers full of lanyards to prove it – Jimmy and Sue headed off to the Gold Coast last week to the Strata Impact conference full of hope that this wouldn't either be another whinge-fest (not least because JT was MC).In fact, it turned out to be absolutely fascinating with all sorts of interesting research from why the wrong apartments are built in the wrong places, to why new buildings are infested with mould and, along the way, how to deal with disruptive committee members using tried and tested psychology.Both of us were impressed by presentations on amazing whizz-bang technology that allows you to get a 3D, virtual reality, fully detailed and inspectable images of your apartment block for about the same as it costs to have a bloke in a hard hat wander round with a clipboard.You can read more about the conference here but it's worth a listen to discover what got Jimmy and Sue excited about our strata future, and alarmed about how things are now, in almost equal measure.That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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.

Three serious stories straight off the website have caught our attention this week – but there's a bit of fun too.The first two reports are changes planned in NSW laws to make life more secure and a bit easier for renters.Premier Chris Minns announced last weekend that the government is going to stop no-fault evictions – where landlord move tenants out of their properties because that's the easiest way of pushing rents up beyond what might be considered reasonable.At the same time the government in going to bring in transferable electronic rental bonds for tenants who are on the move (willingly or otherwise).When finances are tight, and moving home is costly anyway, people can't afford to have a chunk of money tied up in their old bod when they are having to pay their new one.  You'll find both stories HERE.Then there's the question of the strata scheme that was fined $235,000 for breaches of Workplace Health and Safety regs. Does the fact that it was non-residential mean we won't be affected?Or are we liable for WHS if there are Airbnbs in our blocks – or even if we are just working from home?And finally, we launch Hug Your Strata Manager Day and you can do that HERE. That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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.

Oh, dear. Not another swipe at strata managers, please! Yes, OK, it's a well-trodden path but, to be fair, the baddies have made themselves easy targets for the past few months.As for the goodies, we'd say, as we often do, that they are in the majority. And how frustrating must it be to try to earn an honest buck and provide a good service to your customers, knowing that your rivals are getting ahead by playing fast and loose with the rules and regulations?And it's with that in mind that we venture into the strata naughty corner this week, to discuss two pieces of information, both of which we hope will encourage the many honest and decent strata managers to keep doing what they're doing.One topic is news that a well-known strata manager, who had been sacked several times but then promoted by NCAT into an all-powerful compulsory role, has now been struck off.Yes, you read it right. On a total of six occasions, his contract was not renewed or he was even replaced with a statutory manager, but then appointed to exactly that role, taking over from the strata committee and owners corp in another strata scheme.And we have unearthed the amazing, deep-dive parameters of the $300k investigation into Netstrata which looks like it's going to leave no stone unturned.  Now, to be scrupulously fair, the independent inquiry could discover the whole problem was little more than a misunderstanding about who was paying how much to whom for what (“what” being insurance premiums and fees to contractors). It's as deep a dive into a company's structure, business practises and culture as you will ever see, so we hope you'll forgive us for spending a little longer in the naughty corner than usual.That‘s all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.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 look at NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler and how he's ramping up his efforts to get his message across before he retires next month.And that message is, basically, if you are buying off the plan right now and you don't go with a developer who has an iCirt gold star rating, you've only got yourself to blame when it all goes pear-shaped.We take a look at Sue's story about people buying property, not only with the help of Mum and Dad, but with investment from extended family and even friends through a kind of crowdfunding.And we look at some real-life issues that occurred when family members based their deals on trust but then, years later, fell out. Ouch!Finally we explore some quirky tales from the Flat Chat Forum, including strata managers who are trying to get round the three-year limit on contracts, the AGM election that never happened (so there is now no committee) and the strata management contract that says they get the frequent flyer points from payments by credit card. All that and more in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai; Transcription tidied up and sensified by Raphie.Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

It's a bit of a catch-up in this week's Flat Chat Wrap and a look to the immediate future, too.We'll be getting abreast of the news that NSW is planning to tighten regulations on strata managers in the state – a move that was announced a couple of weeks ago when Sue was off air.What will this so-called crackdown mean? Will really bad strata managers lose their licences? Not very likely, we say, and for a number of valid reasons.We'll also be looking at a story that appeared this week in which “unelected bureaucrats and boffins” were accused of hampering the development of much-needed new apartments.And in between we'll be talking about a trend we are calling “luxureduction' where low-cost homes for poor people are being threatened by luxury dwellings that will house a fraction of the number of people they displace. Sue's alarming report on this growing trend is currently slated to appear in the Sydney Morning Herald this weekend.Big issues, all three, and heaps of grist to our podcast mill.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai; Transcription tidied up and sensified by Raphie.Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

In this week's podcast we ask leading strata lawyer David Sachs to run the rule over some of the questions in our Forum.For instance, can the owners corporation charge Airbnb hosts the difference if insurers increase premiums because there are short-term holiday lets in the block?Is it okay to have a paper only AGM with the committee elected by pre-meeting electronic votes?Who pays the costs when a renovator has to get a retrospective by-law for works done without permission?Which law – anti-discrimination or building codes – takes precedence when an owner wants a chairlift installed in a common property stairwell?Can an ordinary owner take a strata manager to the tribunal for failure to fulfill their responsibilities?What can an owner do if their motion for the AGM is left off the agenda when it is published?There are answers to all those questions and more in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai; Transcription tidied up and sensified by Raphie.Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

This week on the Flat Chat Wrap we get a glimpse behind the scenes as NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler is a guest at a “town hall” meeting for members of his team.In it David outlines some of the Building Commission's achievements over the past five years, including the creation of a “defects library” so that certifiers, owners corporations and eventually universities can access the same information about defects, employing the same definitions, so that everyone is on the same page when it comes to claims and remediation.He also outlines his plans for post-retirement – he's not leaving, just winding back a little – celebrates the fact that a team from another state has been looking closely at how the NSW BC works, and relates how inspectors from flammable cladding Project Remediate discovered serious defects in a newish building and got them fixed by the developer without needing to go to court and at no cost to the owners.Just to clarify, David is introduced by Elizabeth Stewart, associate director of Building Compliance, and the other voices you will hear are Assistant Commissioners Tom Carney and Matthew Press. And the Yolande to whom he refers is Yolande Nyss who built  and leads the Project Intervene section which helps strata schemes navigate defect rectification with their developers. All that and more in this week's Flat Chat Wrap. ____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai; Transcription tidied up and sensified by Raphie.Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

The tax office is coming after double-dipping landlords who claim all sorts of things they shouldn't, or just claim for stuff the wrong way.And what about levies? It turns out some are tax deductible and others aren't. But which?By the way, in the podcast we say 86 percent of owners who use tax agents get their returns wrong, in fact the ATO says the majority of investors make mistakes in their tax returns despite 86 percent of them using tax agents.  Oops! Big difference.Moving on, we also look at how the NSW state government is pumping millions into the Building Commission - turning it into an effective CSI-Strata as they track down dodgy developers before they can do too much harm.Turns out it's a case of "round up the usual suspects" as they said in Casablanca (the movie, not the city). And finally, we look at if or when you can record strata committee meetings, and whether or not you should.That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap.____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai; Transcription tidied up and sensified by Raphie.Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

A slightly shorter but more pointed podcast this week as Sue reports on plans to demolish two affordable-rent apartment blocks and replace them with one luxury block with fewer, but presumably high-end apartments.It's another potential blow to the supply of affordable housing in desirable areas. City of Sydney have said “no” so the developers have appealed to the Land and Environment Court (LEC)– which held a kerbside hearing outside the site, the other day. Apparently there are half a dozen other blocks of affordable homes in the Potts Point, Elizabeth Bay area – all marked for gentrification, and we've just heard it's happening in Bondi too.Now we know why there aren't enough materials or skilled workers to build enough affordable apartment blocks – they're all working on luxury pads for the privileged few while reducing the number of available homes.Meanwhile Jimmy has taken serious umbrage at a report in the SMH Domain section which is a typical “neighbours from Hell” yarn. Which is all very well, but it's not even here in Oz and, he says, gives a completely false (and predictably biased) impression of living in apartments.And finally, on her way back from the LEC hearing, Sue chanced upon a vivid example of how hard it is to find somewhere affordable to rent in Sydney.That's all in this week's Flat Chat Wrap. ____________________________________________________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 mail@flatchat.com.au.Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai; Transcription tidied up and sensified by Raphie.Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

As authored by Jimmy Thomson.

Episode 258 - Travel writer Jimmy Thomson recently rode Mexico's controversial new train, The Tren Maya, which services the Yucatan Peninsula. Why is this train so controversial? Is it a game changer? And is now the time to ride it? All answered this week in Travel with HawkeyeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Part I [0:23] Local resident Colleen Eccleston recounts the evening of Feb. 2, 2008 when she and her friend were looking at a house across the street from her place on De Sousa Place, and the moment she received an alarming call from one of her neighbours. Part II [3:03] “Some murders … seem like they were scripted for primetime television, and this is one of them.” Investigative reporter Zander Sherman introduces us to Jimmy Thomson, managing editor of Capital Daily, a small media company on Vancouver Island looking to separate fact from fiction with this unsolved case.Part III [5:30] Zander speaks with Shirley Zailo, one of Lindsay's colleagues and the mother of Lindsay's boyfriend. Shirley recalls coming to the office and Lindsay telling her that she was excited because she had a new client that was coming to town who was looking to buy a house for a sizable amount of money.Part IV [14:55] Lisa Jennings, a retired paramedic with BC Ambulance Service, recounts the night she received a Code 3 to come to the house on De Sousa Place. Her account differs from that of the Saanich Police Department.Part V [18:38] The whole street on De Sousa Place is shut down with police beginning their search for the murderer.---Get up-to-date information on the Lindsay Buziak case and bonus episodes at lindsaybuziakpodcast.com.Murder On The Island: The Lindsay Buziak Story is presented by capitaldaily.ca.