Exactly who gets to view the recording from your strata scheme’s CCTV cameras? That’s a topic that’s been keeping us occupied on the Flat Chat Forum and now gets an additional airing on the podcast.Can your strata scheme limit viewings to the strata manager or committee members? Aren’t there privacy issues involved? And what about those who want to look at the recordings for nefarious purposes.In a podcast in which it sounds like Jimmy is going for a world record in the use of the word “nefarious” we pick the pixels out of the strata laws surrounding CCTV and come up with a conclusion that many apartment residents may find alarming.LISTEN HEREBut before that, we look at the potential benefits of the creation of a new high-powered committee to come up with a plan to reintroduce construction insurance for new apartment blocks.And we look at the impact on apartments of NSW opening up to tourism just when a new registry of short-term rental accommodation – like Airbnb and Stayz - comes into force.In the discussion we speculate about what defines a “principal place of residence” and whether that would allow savvy owners and tenants to by-pass by-laws by only renting their flats at weekends.At first, Planning NSW defined “principal place of residence” as “the place where a person usually lives, and so most of their possessions and clothes would be there and usually their mail would be sent there also."We see that as a loophole through which you could drive a luggage trolley but since we recorded the podcast, NSW Planning has revised its view, as you can read in this story.We still think anti-STRA strata schemes will struggle with chancers who will break the rules until such times as they are caught. Maybe they should install CCTV.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy 00:00We've got a real mixture of topics this week. We've got the pretty major breakthrough on insurance; construction insurance for apartment blocks. We've got the Airbnb register, that you've got to be on, if you want to rent property on Airbnb.Sue 00:20Wow, is that finally coming in?Jimmy 00:23November 1st; people have got to be registered on it by. I don't know what happens if they're not on it after that; maybe, somebody comes around and...Sue 00:31That's incredible, because I never thought it was actually going to finally happen. It seemed to be kind of shelved, so many times.Jimmy 00:38But then, you know, Airbnb or short-term letting, kind of ceased to exist for a while, because of COVID. And then, there's a weird story that's come up through the forum, about CCTV, and who gets to view strata CCTV. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue 01:05And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy 01:08This is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]Jimmy So, the big news; there is a panel being set up, to establish a basis for insurance on apartment block construction.Sue 01:34This is fantastic! I mean, this is really big news, because it's been 18 years since any building over three storeys high, has been able to get home insurance...Home warranty insurance.Jimmy 01:49Yeah. Because they kept falling down.Sue 01:51Well, that's right.Jimmy 01:51They had so ma
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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.
