Sometimes the fur flies at weddings, and things can certainly get catty between landlords and tenants but, as we explore in this week's podcast, a woman has taken things to a whole new level in an effort to get round restrictions on pets.

This story about the woman who married her cat started in Sidcup, just outside London, and has gone around the world and back again.

But Jimmy did some digging and discovered that on just about every occasion, it has been misreported.

It's not the cat-lady's fault - people just made assumptions (as they do). So, listen in for the truth behind reports that this was to avoid eviction for having a pet where one wasn’t allowed.

There’s more to this than meets the (cat’s) eye, including the revelation that Debora Hodge isn't the first cat lover to marry her pet.

Then there’s the certifier of the building next to Mascot Towers who was discovered to have been in China when he was supposedly approving the building works.

We ask why Building Commissioner David Chandler didn’t want journalists at a developers’ seminar he addressed recently.

We examine why councillors and council officials in a Sydney Local Government Area now have to register every meeting they have with developers. (We use the word “record” in the podcast but we mean make a written record, not an audio recording.)

And we speculate on what interest rate rises and political posturing is likely to do to apartment prices and rental availability.

That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap … and here’s a video of the cat lady, as a little bonus.

https://youtu.be/8YEYJy_nIFI

TRANSCRIPT IN FULL

Jimmy  00:00

Every week we sit down to do this podcast, and we start off thinking we don't have anything to talk about. By the time we are sat down, we're thinking "we don't have enough time, to talk about everything."

This week, we have a woman who married her cat, so that she could stay in her rented accommodation. Although, there's more to that than it sounds. We've got the certifier...

Sue  00:26

Did the cat own the apartment or something?

Jimmy  00:28

 No.

Sue  00:29

Pets weren't allowed in the apartment; that's why she married her pet?

Jimmy  00:32

 Not even that.

Sue  00:32

Oh, okay. I'll be interested to hear about that!

Jimmy  00:35

And, there's a certifier who's been struck off, for life. We've got all sorts of other things with developers, including David Chandler... Big news about David Chandler; the Building Commissioner and what the various parties are promising to do about housing. The Greens have got some pretty exciting ideas. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review. And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain. And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.

[MUSIC]

Sue  01:21

So, what's this about the woman marrying her cat?

Jimmy  01:23

Oh, this is a story that's bouncing around social media at the moment. Basically, the story is that Deborah Hodge from Sidcup in southeast London, has married her cat India, to avoid... Well, according to the stories, it's to avoid being evicted from her apartment and then you dig into the story and you discover that she is not in danger of being evicted because she has a cat, she's in danger of being evicted, because she hasn't paid her rent.

Sue  01:54

Oh! So why has she married her cat?

Jimmy  01:57

To make it clear to prospective landlords, that she and the cat come as a unit. Twice in the past she has "had to give up her beloved pets, because landlords didn't allow pets in the rented property." Okay, I know exactly what you're thinking; you're thinking well, find another property that does allow pets. Two Huskies were the first ones that she had to give up and another cat, which apparently broke her heart. So Deborah; poor Deborah, she's (dare I use the word 'failed'?), no longer employed as a 'life coach.'

Sue  02:37