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FlatChatters is a repository for stories from the FlatChat.com.au website, as well as comments from friends and interested parties. Please "friend" and share.

It has been launched becasue Facebook locked us out of FlatChatting.

07/03/2025

New Post: Forum: Builder’s botch job leaves flat floorless This is a nightmare that can only happen in strata. The floor in a unit needed fixing and the owners corp employed a builder to do the work Sadly, they made a poor choice of tradie and the builder made the problem worse. Now an engineer has been sought and meanwhile the apartment is uninhabitable, has been for several months and will be for the https://buff.ly/CrZJJd8

06/03/2025

New Post: Podcast: Netstrata scandal from the inside 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 shabby 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 https://buff.ly/kUPJxKy

05/03/2025

New Post: Get your strata block all set for cyclone impact Strata buildings, especially townhouses, are not immune from the devastating effects of cyclones, and you need to get your strata block ready for Cyclone Alfred … or the next one coming your way. As Cyclone Alfred hurtled towards the between the Northen Rivers of NSW and Queensland’s Sunshine coast on Tuesday night, our sponsors Strata Community Insurance issued a storm emergency plan for strata communities, https://buff.ly/EMpXPnK

05/03/2025

New Post: How to avoid First AGM dodgy contract traps Last week, an independent inquiry into strata management giant Netstrata resulted in a withering report into the company’s strata practices. The report, sponsored by NSW Fair Trading (https://buff.ly/41jlrRb)and conducted by highly regarded investigators McgrathNicol, followed an ABC TV Four Corners (https://buff.ly/9rZjPvx) track alleging that apartment owners had been misled, denied their rights and ripped off by a variety of strata managers, while too-cosy relationships with https://buff.ly/cgiQ06c

04/03/2025

New Post: Get your strata block all set for cyclone season Strata buildings, especially townhouses, are not immune from the devastating effects of cyclones, and you need to get your strata block ready for Cyclone Alfred … or the next one coming your way. As Cyclone Alfred hurtled towards the between the Northen Rivers of NSW and Queensland’s Sunshine coast on Tuesday night, our sponsors Strata Community Insurance issued a storm emergency plan for strata communities, https://buff.ly/EMpXPnK

28/02/2025

New Post: Forum: How to switch your strata managers It’s not exactly rats leaving a sinking ship but the steady trickle of strata schemes planning to switch away from strata managers Netstrata could become a flood when this story (https://buff.ly/41jlrRb)gets broader coverage. However, as some Flatchatters are discovering, if your strata manager has persuaded you to sign a “full delegation” contract, it might be harder to get rid of them than you thought. Full https://buff.ly/4gYYl8q

27/02/2025

New Post: Podcast: Fast-track flats and an Airbnb tax 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 (https://buff.ly/41kvRjK) 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 https://buff.ly/41Co56g

27/02/2025

New Post: Netstrata report slams ‘disturbing practices’ The report into strata managing company Netstrata has been released by NSW Fair Trading and it is a devastating dissection of a culture of dubious behaviour, including but not limited to non-disclosure of conflicts of interest. However, Netstrata says it contests most of the allegations listed in the report and says some of the report’s findings are “at odds with industry understanding and practices.” The https://buff.ly/43aUpOJ

21/02/2025

New Post: Forum: Coin-op laundry machines are in the way Nothing says “user pays” quite like coin-op laundry machines but they hark back to a whole different era where communal concerns weren’t just commonplace but were at the heart of the way we lived. Take older blocks with communal washhouses out the back. At some point they might have had big copper tubs where the water was heated by fire. Then they would have evolved https://buff.ly/4hFuYJo

20/02/2025

New Post: New laws: Will strata cops make a difference? 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 https://buff.ly/4gWzF0s

20/02/2025

New Post: $8.4m Taskforce to be the state’s new strata cop Reforms to new strata laws passed in NSW this week will be enforced by an $8.4 million, “high impact” dedicated Strata and Property Services Taskforce within NSW Fair Trading, says the department. The new task force will bring together “existing specialist staff” in a Building Commission-like body that targets the professional standards, training and behaviour of strata managers and real estate agents. And while the https://buff.ly/4iorhYL

18/02/2025

New Post: New strata insurer signs up with Flat Chat Strata Community Insurance (SCInsurance) has signed up to be a sponsor for Flat Chat and promise a fresh perspective on what has been a troubled industry over the past year or more. SCInsurance will provide regular information on the strata insurance scene and will even dip into the Flat Chat Forum (https://buff.ly/4gcIAdI) to answer your questions about strata insurance (when they can). This is what they https://buff.ly/4b9Au4K

17/02/2025

New Post: Miller: Rein in Airbnb to free up 1000 city homes Sydney city counillors are turning up the heat on Airbnb (https://buff.ly/3EJkfza)-style rentals, putting pressure on the state government to toughen restrictions on short-term inner city lets, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald (https://buff.ly/3Xtzraf.). Councillor Jess Miller has brought a motion before City of Sydney Council seeking to rein in commercial investors who operate multiple short-term rentals. If successful, the motion could pressure https://buff.ly/4b6WcpJ

14/02/2025

New Post: PICA: New laws threaten strata managers’ viability The boss of PICA, one of Australia’s strata management giants, says owners’ education should come before the planned radical changes in strata law if the financial viability of his industry isn’t to be reduced to “aged care levels.” And Bobby Lehane, Group CEO of PICA, warns that the additional burden of explaining law changes to owners will inevitably lead to increased strata management fees. PICA https://buff.ly/4gEfGDm

13/02/2025

New Post: Forum: Council versus owners corp over Airbnb Airbnb is the gift that keeps giving when it comes to media coverage of strata, especially with every state having their own rules that are always changing. Victoria’s “come on down” attitude, that has seen perfectly good apartment blocks tuned into party and backpacker hell holes, has now become a revenue raising exercise to pay for affordable homes for the people driven out by the https://buff.ly/4gzA0G9

13/02/2025

New Post: Podcast: Secretive strata managers face fines 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 allegations aired last year about Netstrata hiding insurance https://buff.ly/3Xncrtt

12/02/2025

New Post: New strata manager laws: $110k fine warning Strata management companies who don’t fully inform their apartment owners about connections with developers and suppliers, as well as commissions and brokers fees, could face hefty fines from NSW Fair Trading due to new strata manager laws. Greater accountability and transparency are at the heart of newly announced regulations that recently came into effect, requiring strata managers in NSW to be upfront with owners about kickbacks https://buff.ly/3CNgrvZ

11/02/2025

New Post: New strata manager laws come with $110k fine threat Strata management companies who don’t fully inform their apartment owners about connections with developers and suppliers, as well as commissions and brokers fees, could face hefty fines from NSW Fair Trading due to new strata manager laws. Greater accountability and transparency are at the heart of newly announced regulations that recently came into effect, requiring strata managers in NSW to be upfront with owners about kickbacks https://buff.ly/3CNgrvZ

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