Not Sure About Apartment Pet Laws? Find Out Your Rights for You and Your Pet
Well, for a long time, this was a widely held belief. And there are still plenty of people who think that flats and Fido don’t mix.Read More
Category: Hints for Strata Living
Helpful hints for strata living
Annoyed by your noisy neighbours? Do something about it!
I have to listen to my neighbour’s music and I don’t have a choice. Is this you? And not so into their music?Read More
What Do I Own in my Strata Scheme and What is Common Property?
For any unit owner as part of a strata scheme, Body Corporate Services or owners corporation, the critical question is what is your unit (or lot) and what is common property. This will determined who is responsible for what and who pays. General Rule (subject to exceptions) The general rule applicable to the majority of strata schemes registered after 1 July 1974 is: The structures located on the solid thick line, such as, that shown above at the registration of the strata plan are common property. The ceiling , the structure of the floor including fixed tiles or floorboards, the electrical […]Read More
Website creates Vertical Communities
A website for buildings that creates vertical communities sounds like techno, tree hugging, mumbo-jumbo. Indeed ‘community building’ is one of those slogans you hear chanted by the left; people who want to save forests and shut down brown-coal fired power stations. But community building is now starting to gain the interest of property developers, a group not generally associated with left-leaning do-gooders! It’s good for developers to use the language, but are they really delivering housing that promotes genuine community building? Large scale residential towers along Australia’s eastern coast are enjoying a boom, as one in four Aussies now live […]Read More
Improve Property Value in a Strata Scheme
To improve property value in a strata scheme, owners must work together to achieve results. This can be a difficult undertaking as people have different ideas about what renovations are required to add property value in a strata scheme. Sometimes people make the mistake of taking the cheap option of simply patching a structural problem or existing defect. This is like wallpapering a cracked wall. Any building inspection from a new purchaser will reveal the underlaying cause of the problem and thus devalue the whole property. This can also cause the impression that there may be other major issues you […]Read More
How to Add Value to your Apartment Building
How do you add value to your apartment? Most likely you’d install a timber floor or update the kitchen. The cost – tens of thousands of dollars – and with a rising property market and a bit of luck you’d see the money back. Even if you don’t want to spend that sort of money on your apartment, you can still add value to it by making sure it’s part of an appealing and well kept building. With thousands of new apartments being built making improvements to your own building may not just be an option, it may be a […]Read More
Savvy Strata Owners Get Involved
News Release Coinciding with popular TV shows such as The Block, today’s Strata unit owners are more savvy about their investment, taking control and interest in managing the affairs of the whole building they live in, including the common areas they jointly own. Commenced in the early 1960s as a form of property management devised for people living in unit blocks, townhouses and apartment buildings, today there are an estimated 120,000 Strata, Body or Owners’ Corporations in Australia. Mostly they manage the common areas such as stairs, lifts, gardens, car parks and the like, as well as organising building maintenance funds […]Read More
Self-managed Strata Unit Owners work together to transform Problem Block
I have to share with you a wonderful story of a group of self-managed strata unit owners in Ashgrove (Qld). About a year ago they didn’t have a strata manager and their building was in a terrible state. The property was run-down with flooding in the understory of the building every time it rained. The property’s value was declining dramatically. It was one of those depressing stories that keeps owners awake at night. The owners joined Our Body Corp in April last year and began the process of self-managing their strata with some support from us along the way. The […]Read More
Does Your Pool Pass the Test?
Does your pool pass the test? What is the test? Did you know from April next year when a property, with a pool, is sold or leased in NSW that a certificate of compliance regarding the pool will need to be attached to the sale or lease contract? This can all sound kind of complicated, and the message we’re hearing is owners must obtain their certificate of compliance as soon as possible. Don’t wait until the time of sale or lease to apply. We understand that the Building Professional’s Board is establishing a new category of private certifier for pool […]Read More
A pipe has been broken by a tenant in a strata property. Who pays?
We recently saw this question about tenants in a strata property posted on the Flat Chat Forum, (a forum for people and managers living and working in strata communities can post questions and have them answered by the community). Question: Tenants broke a waste pipe which is attached to the garage wall inside the garage. They hit it whilst entering or exiting the garage. The owner has asked the Owners Corporation to have the pipe repaired. My question is who should pay for repair as the damage is obviously done by the tenant and our owners corporation are getting sick […]Read More