Housing News Digest
Housing News Digest
The Tenants' Union Housing News Digest compiles our pick of items from all the latest tenancy and housing media, sent once per week, on Thursdays.
Below is the Digest archive from November 2020 onwards. From time to time you will find additional items in the archive that did not make it into the weekly Digest email. Earlier archives are here, where you can also find additional digests by other organisations.
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Archive
Woman crushed by ceiling collapse as ITV News exposes yet more social housing failures
Sophie Alexander (No paywall)Imagine if you were standing in your bedroom and suddenly the entire ceiling came crashing down on you, knocking you to the floor. That’s what happened to Adeola Olutade, from Brixton, south London. She was enjoying a restful Sunday while her four-year-old daughter was out with family when she noticed a small leak in the corner of her bedroom. Fast forward 40 minutes and the leak had turned into a full disaster as the ceiling of Adeola’s bedroom came crashing down on her head, coating her in debris. (ITV News)
https://www.itv.com/news/2021-08-19/tenant-on-housing-conditions…
# Video International, Public and community housing, Repairs, Local Government.Billionaire gives displaced hermit $250,000
The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)From the United States ... A billionaire software company CEO has given a former hermit $US180,000 ($251,000) to rebuild his cabin in a new location. ... There has been an outpouring of support for Lidstone since he was jailed on July 15 and accused of squatting for nearly 30 years on property owned by a Vermont man. ... His New Hampshire cabin burnt down this month.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/billionaire-gives-hom…
# International, Squatting.Strata owners slam NSW Health ‘confused mess’
Jimmy Thomson (No paywall)With yet another “tightening” of lockdown restrictions for greater Sydney, and once again the specific needs of apartment residents being ignored, the peak group for apartment owners in NSW has come out swinging. The Owners Corporation Network (OCN) has accused the NSW Health depart of creating a “confused mess” by trying to treat 40-storey high apartment blocks the same as stand-alone houses, and explaining that strata committees can’t manage a pandemic just through by-laws. “Health NSW needs a clearer strategy for directing and supporting apartment communities,” Karen Stiles, Executive Officer of OCN said. (Flat Chat)
https://www.flat-chat.com.au/ocn-slams-health/?no_cache=16295068…
# NSW, Strata, Coronavirus COVID-19.Locked down neighbours complain about kids using chalk on driveway
Caitlin Fitzsimmons The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Neighbourhood tensions are rising among Sydney’s apartment dwellers as the lockdown enters its ninth week, with one mother the subject of a complaint for letting her daughters use chalk on the communal driveway. The Sun-Herald has heard multiple accounts of neighbours or strata committees across Sydney writing to residents to complain about children making noise or playing on common property. ... There were nearly a million Sydneysiders living in apartments at the 2016 census, and a growing number are families with children. Nurse Michelle Allebi lives in a two-bedroom flat in Croydon Park - in the hard-hit Canterbury-Bankstown local government area - with her husband Jose and their two daughters, age 4 and 2. As an alternative to parks and playgrounds, Ms Allebi supervised a play session with chalk in the driveway drawing love hearts, butterflies, alphabets and hopscotch. She received a handwritten letter from a neighbour pointing out it was against strata bylaws to “deface or damage” common property. ... The family has also received two letters from the strata committee complaining their children were too loud ... She added that she had never complained about the neighbours’ behaviour, including not wearing masks in the common areas, parking in her parking spot or blocking the driveway. ... Tenants’ Union chief executive Leo Patterson Ross said it was common for strata committees to include a bylaw saying occupants should not make “excessive noise”... “It’s not surprising the issue is popping up now because everyone’s at home and it’s a more stressed, tense environment.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/locked-down-neighbours-compl…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Strata, Coronavirus COVID-19, Local Government.New pet-friendly strata laws about to bite
Jimmy Thomson (No paywall)A change in NSW strata law that comes in next week will radically alter the default position on pets in NSW strata schemes, bringing relief to pet owners and some certainty to strata schemes confused by recent legal decisions on pet ownership. From August 24, any by-laws that unreasonably prohibit owners from keeping pets will be invalid and unreasonable delays in reaching a decision on whether or not to accept pets will be taken as approval. However, there will be provisions to protect residents for whom the presence of animals in the block would “unreasonably interfere” with their health or wellbeing. (Flat Chat) You will find the new regulation at: [https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/pdf/asmade/sl-2021-464]
# NSW, Strata, State Government.Vaccinating the most vulnerable in our society
Mary McCarthy ABC (No paywall)When it comes to vaccinating the most vulnerable, a Sydney hospital has found that taking the vaccines directly to them dramatically increases the uptake. Every Thursday, big crowds of homeless people and people living in social housing gather at a pop-up vaccination clinic in inner Sydney spurred on by the outbreak that is growing around them. (ABC 7.30 Report)
https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/vaccinating-the-most-vulnerable-in-o…
# Video NSW, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.Illawarra tenants,landlords battle over mould in rentals
Desiree Savage (Paywall)Illawarra tenants are copping the blame for hazardous black mould in rentals, but it could be the landlord who is at fault for endangering their health. (Illawarra Mercury)
# NSW, Rent, Repairs, Landlords and agents, Mould.Rent vs buy? Five economists weigh in on what you should do
Jessica Irvine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)In last week’s column [at: https://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/is-it-better-to-rent-or-buy-i-ran-the-numbers-to-find-out-20210813-p58ij6.html], I poked a hornet’s nest by refusing to give the standard financial advice that it is always better to buy a home, rather than “rent-vest” by continuing to rent and investing. I concluded that: “Overall… the rent versus buy decision is one you have to make for yourself, depending on your circumstances.” This week, I took my analysis to five economists to get their thoughts.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/investing/rent-vs-buy-five-economis…
# Australia, Rent, Home ownership.