There are two major strands to this week’s podcast.The first stems from a question raised in the Flat Chat Forum, about an apartment owner who wants to install a stairlift – one of those seats that trundles up a staircase – in a narrow common property stairwell.It's for his elderly mother, so you have some sympathy, as you'd have for the other owners who had to squeeze past the rail every day.Listen HereNow the plusses and (many) minuses of this proposal are thrashed out in the Forum but here in the podcast, we have come up with a cunning plan.Depending on the structure of the block, owners might be able to install a small passenger lift on the outside of the building for between $100k and $150k. Ouch, I hear you say. $150k?But get this, the value of EACH apartment that benefitted from the lift might easily go up by about the same amount.So say you had six apartments (excluding the ground floor units) who each contributed $25k – about the cost of a bathroom renovation – you could raise the value of every upstairs flat by about four times that or more ... and make your lives a lot easier.Of course it would depend on the layout of the block – the stairwell would need to have one external wall – and by-laws and what not. But the point is, it’s do-able and the owner in the Forum story would be able to get him Mum up and down the stairs without any trouble at all.The other major part of the podcast is a chat with Karen Stiles, the Executive Officer of the Owners Corporation network.She is working with NSW Minister Victor Dominello to create a register of every strata scheme in NSW, including their major points of contact, whether it be the secretary, chair or strata manager.It's one of those ideas that's both radical and logical - probably the two main reasons why it hasn't been done before.There’s all that and more in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.The transcript, in fullJimmy 00:00This is a momentous occasion.Sue 00:02Really?Jimmy 00:03Believe it or not. This is the 100th podcast.Sue: 00.07Wow.Jimmy 00:08We have done 100 of these things.Sue 00:10That's incredible. Congratulations, Jimmy.Jimmy 00:13It means we've been doing it for almost two years.Sue 00:15Wow. It's gone quickly, hasn't it?Jimmy 00:18It has, and, and the numbers of people listening are slowly growing.Sue 00:23Fantastic. Thank you very much listeners.Jimmy 00:25Yes, thank you and to help us celebrate her 100th, pass it on to your friends. Get more people listening; that would be very cool. If you enjoy it, your friends will probably enjoy it too. This week, we have an intriguing story about somebody who wants to install a stair lift, where we suspect no stair lift should be installed. And we'll be talking to Karen Stiles, the executive officer of the Owners Corporation Network. I'm Jimmy Thomson.Sue 00:56And I'm Sue Williams.Jimmy 00:57And this is the 100th Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]So here's the scenario that was posed on the forum. Older building, narrow stairs; an apartment on the third floor. The owner, he’s put up a bylaw to give him permission to install a chairlift; a stair lift. They call it stair lift, not a chairlift. That's what you use in ski resorts. It's not quite as elaborate as that.Su
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Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.