This week we’ve taken the podcast overseas as we’re recording on a cruise ship off the coast of Norway.

But it gives us an opportunity to look at one of the vexed questions of living in strata in Australia.

You may not know this but there is already one city in Australia that has rent controls. Do they work? Do they keep rents low or just set a benchmark for rent hikes at every opportunity.

We take advantage of a stop-over in Amsterdam to find out how rent controls work there – where 45 per cent of the population are tenants – and do they solve the housing problems that it too suffers?

And we take a look at the strangest “hotel” rooms in the world and what our cities might be like if everyone rode bikes. 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.

Last week Sue dropped a bomb into a discussion about new strata laws in NSW, one of which will invalidate by-laws that block sustainability changes because they would alter the look of the building.

Does this mean the end of by-laws that forbid drying laundry on balconies? Surely not using a tumble dryer and instead using the wind and sun is a sustainability issue?

And, if it is, doesn't that mean, at the very least, out-of-date laundry bans can be changed with a simple majority, meaning that a no-laundry minority of 25 per cent can't veto change.

This week we look at the new laws and the current model by-laws and ask if the government hasn't inadvertently started a war between NOOOBs (Not On Our Balconies) and Greenies.

And speaking of wars, we also look at a new book about missing anti-development activist Juanita Nielsen which suggests her campaigns to halt unfettered high-rise developments, and her disappearance 50 years ago next month, may have led to the current housing crisis.

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.

If you've been hiding under your bed - and who isn't tempted these days? - you may not have heard that NSW is about to see a second tranche of strata law reforms become a reality on July 1.

What are the new laws and what do they mean? We invited Robert Anderson, President of SCA-NSW, the state's professional body for strata managers and service providers, on to the podcast to explain some of them.

We discussed the fact that strata contracts will come under Federal consumer protection laws for the first time, and what that means - especially in relation to SCA's much maligned standard contract.

Did you know Fair Trading is planning to issue a standard strata management contract, like the one for rentals? Me neither.

We also touched on estimates for legal services, new processes for minor renovations, embedded networks, common property repair delays, the doubling of fees for seeing strata records, and the behaviour of committee members at meetings.

And Sue thinks she's found a wrinkle that will make it harder for buildings to ban drying laundry on balconies.

That's all in this week's (legal) action-packed 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.