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Dodgy contracts that could see off-the-plan sales rescinded might be being rewritten as we speak.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.

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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 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.

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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 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.