There’s a lot to get through in this week’s podcast, not least the new regulations on pets in strata which replace the now defunct blanket bans on pets.Even so, Jimmy finds time to indulge in not one but two full-on rants.But first, we talk about noise, specifically from kids playing in and around strata blocks during lockdown.Is it even reasonable to ask parents to tell their kids to keep the noise down? And should we be bothered if they draw a hopscotch grid on the driveway in chalk?And then there’s the noise from renovations. In Victoria, during lockdowns, renos in apartment blocks are banned if there is even just one apartment occupied at the time – end of story.LISTEN HEREIn NSW, provided you have no more than two tradies working in any apartment at any given time, you can have as many renos going on in the same block as you want.What about all the people forced to work from home and not able to go out for anything except shopping and exercise? Welcome to rant No.1.Then we have the new pet regulations (which came out after we had recorded and edited the podcast, so we had to go back in and do that part all over again). The new amendment to the NSW strata Act say schemes can’t have by-laws that bans pets unreasonably.And now you have retrospective regs that define “reasonable”, all of which makes it easier for residents to have pets, but easier for owners corps to remove them if they cause a nuisance, by defining exactly what a nuisance might be.As you can read in this story, the onus is now on owners to have strata-friendly pets rather than find pet-friendly strata schemes.And here is the promised link to the Companion Animals Act, which is referenced in the new regulations.Finally, we talk about all the positives coming from the lockdowns, specifically the ways in which strata residents are helping each other get through all this.And this includes rant No.2 – if you are a member of the Potts Pointers Facebook group, you might want to give this a listen. Enjoy.TRANSCRIPT IN FULL Jimmy 00:00I am shocked and disappointed, Sue Williams.Sue 00:04Something I've done?Jimmy 00:06I've been writing a lot on the website, about how little concern is given to apartment residents by New South Wales Health. I've been saying there should be somebody in there who knows about apartment living and then I found out last week, that two of the ministers in the Crisis Cabinet are former Fair Trading Ministers.Sue 00:32Really?Jimmy 00:32Yeah, so we're going to be talking about that, later. We're going to be talking about noise, during lockdown. We're going to be talking about the new pet laws that come in this week and, we're going to talk about some of the good things that are happening during lockdown in apartments. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue 00:55And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy 00:58And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]JimmyNoise in and around the lockdown, Sue. I mean, noise in apartments is one of the big issues, anyway and I've had a couple of posts to the Flat Chat forum this week, from people complaining about noisy children, like in normal times... Children running arou
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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.
