Podcast: New pet laws and defining ‘reasonable‪’‬ FLAT CHAT WRAP

In this week’s podcast we give the NSW Parliament’s deliberations on it’s new strata pet laws a kick along.As reported here, the Lower House has taken a good six months to deal with a procedural Bill that would have promoted sustainability and tidied up several odd loopholes in strata law.However, it was tagged with an amendment that would have meant pets could only be excluded from apartments if it was detrimental to the animal.Listen HereThe amended Bill, which was approved by the Upper House with its Animal Justice Party alteration, had zero chance of being approved by the Legislative Assembly. Right or wrong, the majority Coalition government was simply not going to approve open slather for pet owners in strata.So Sydney MP Alex Greenwich stepped in and wrangled a compromise that basically says pets could not “unreasonably” be refused domicile in apartment blocks while getting a commitment to a parliamentary report on what “reasonable” actually means.And that’s where we hop in with our ten cents worth on the podcast. Rental as anythingElsewhere in the pod, in light of the tax and planning breaks now on offer from the NSW government, we discuss the rise and rise of build-to-rent apartment blocks – there are 40 “in the pipeline” according to real estate marketing giant CBRE.But will they be snazzy upmarket facilities-filled developments like Mirvac’s Liv Indigo? Or will they be cheap and cheerless, renters-only versions of the cram-em-in, stack-em-high chicken coops beloved of some well-known developers?  Time will tell.Commish kicks buttFinally Sue chats about her recent conversation with Building Commissioner David Chandler.  Six months into his much-hyped crackdown on dodgy developers, is he making a difference, especially with regard to confidence in our high-rise buildings?We dig around for evidence.Zany Zoom callsAnd keeping things upbeat, Jimmy points us to these two videos.The first, is balm to the soul of any strata chair or secretary who’s had to deal with unruly members at an online committee meeting.If you are one of the few people on the planet who hasn't already seen this, it made a global viral video heroine of Council Clerk Jackie Weaver and her ruthless handling of obstreperous members of Handforth Parish Council in England.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB3P_0GAi0IAnd on a lighter note, there’s the lawyer who appeared on a Zoom video as a cute little talking kitten. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcnnI6HD6DUAlmost as amusing in the video from Texas is the warning in the top left corner that recording the meeting was an offence. Well, that really worked.But maybe if we all had to adopt animal alter egos, online strata meetings would be a lot less fractious and a lot more fun.Enjoy the podcast and let us know what you think of the new format on mail@flatchat.com.au.Transcript In FullJimmy  00:00Big news on the pet front this week in strata.Sue  00:04Yes! it's all happening, isn’t it?Jimmy  00:04We've got ‘build to rent’ to talk about and you've been chatting to Building Commissioner, David Chandler?Sue 00:14Yes, that's right.Jimmy  00:15Is he making a difference; let's find out, later on. I'm J____________________________________________________


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Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai; Transcription tidied up and sensified by Raphie.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.