Imagine you are the chair or secretary of a strata scheme. You can cope with fielding a reasonable number of messages via the strata manager or building manager.It’s a mixed bag, some of the messages are simple and straightforward, some are well-intentioned if occasionally ill-informed, and there’s the odd one that’s abusive and ignorant.It’s all part of the cut and thrust of strata living and one way or another it lets you know what people in the building are thinking.Then one day, you start getting angry phone calls on your personal phone and your private email inbox is swamped with abusive emails and spam.That’s when you might decide enough is enough. Keeping your hands on the levers of power is not worth the hassle and personal abuse to which you are suddenly subjected.That’s the nightmare scenario dreaded by some strata professionals, and it’s one they fear will see competent and experienced strata office-bearers give up when NSW’s new strata Hub comes into being at the end of next month.From June 30, strata committee office-bearers’ email addresses and phone numbers will be available to all owners and residents, including renters, as well as rental agents. We kick that around on this week’s podcast.We also look at the challenges real estate agents face when they are trying to sell properties in blocks that have been allowed to go to seed, or apartments where the vendors are determinedly living in the past.And we pick up on a Forum question about whether or not strata owners are legally obliged to maintain a TV aerial on the roof of their building.That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap podcast.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy 00:00Have you heard of the strata hub?Sue 00:02Oh, vaguely, but it was a while ago that I last heard about it.Jimmy 00:06Right. So this is the thing that was set up; originally, it was Victor Dominello's idea to have a central repository for all the information about every strata scheme in New South Wales. It's all going to happen on June the 30th, so we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about buying and selling and what you see when you go around, looking at apartments. We're going to talk about TV aerials, and strata lawyers (a lot, actually). Another day when we thought we had nothing and now, we discover that we've got too much. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue 00:46And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy 00:49And this is the Flat Chat Wrap. So, the strata hub; a new regulation. Interesting, reading it. For a start, it's confusing (of course), because it's Australian law, so it has to be confusing. This is information that strata schemes have to give to the secretary, with a capital S. Who would you assume the Secretary was?Sue 01:28The person who was nominated to be the secretary, by the rest of the strata committee.Jimmy 01:33No, it's not them. It's the Secretary in the Department of Services. Not Community Services; Services New South Wales. So, they've got a capital S for this Secretary, but of course, you're reading it and you're going, so if you're giving this to the Secretary, who's the Secretary? It's a different Secretary.Sue 0
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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.
