The Flat Chat wrap this week is taken up with three main topics.The first is a petition to parliament to create a blacklist of bad landlords … launched by someone who is a landlord herself.Victoria is about to get one next month and it seems only fair that, if NSW tenants can be put on a blacklist that makes it harder for them to get rentals, then bad landlords should also be named and shamed in the hope they sharpen up their ideas to get good renters.You can find links to the petition here.Listen HereOur second topic is the “skyscratcher” hotel planned for Pitt St, Sydney. In the podcast we erroneously reference the architects’ (Durbach Block Jaggers) website as the home of some caustic comments.In fact, we were thinking of the excellent Dezeen online architecture and design magazine (from which we pilfered the illustrations on this page). Check it out if you are at all interested in innovative building design. And by the way, some reader comments on that site say the plan was just a kite-flying attempt to get publicity and that development application to City of Sydney had been withdrawn after objections from neighbours.That doesn’t seem to be the case if you look at the detailed application documents HERE on the City of Sydney website.If you’re excited by innovative high-rise architecture (even though it’s an hotel) have a look at Dezeen for more detail.And finally we found the pet-friendliest apartment block in Sydney which has its own cat café. However, we’ve also found another one in Surry Hills called Catmosphere which offers cat yoga (among other things) for feline-deprived locals.It’s bookings only so don’t just turn up or the fur will fly.Transcript in full.Jimmy 00:00Bad landlords and skinny buildings; that's what we're going to be talking about today. That new building in Sydney, they’re describing it as a sky-scratcher, because it's too thin to be called a skyscraper.Sue 00:17Hmm, interesting!Jimmy 00:19I think they're splitting hairs there. They are our main topics of conversation and a move to have a blacklist of bad landlords. I’m Jimmy Thomson; I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue 00:32And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain with the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age.Jimmy 00:37And this is the Flat Chat Wrap. [MUSIC]Sue, you've been talking to somebody about a blacklist for landlords?Sue 00:58Yes. They had a really bad experience renting property, and they're actually also a landlord themselves, so they know what they're talking about. They had a bad experience; lots of things went wrong. Repairs, problems, and the landlord's mother used to visit their home without giving notice and all that kind of thing. They went to Fair Trading, then they went to NCAT and got an order against their landlord. They feel that there are lots of lousy landlords out there, and they deserve to be highlighted so that when you go to rent an apartment or a house, you actually know…Jimmy 01:36What their track record is.Sue 01:39Yeah. Whether they have good tenant references; whether they've had rulings against them in NCAT in the past. Whether they've got a bad reputation or whether they're a great l
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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.
