Yes, Quincy, and that applies just as much to free-standing homes as it does to strata blocks. It’s time to stop kidding ourselves that everything is sweet and lovely in quarter-acre block country while strata blocks are seething sinks of discontent. I know people in free-standing homes who have been threatened, abused and persecuted by selfish and antisocial neighbours who refuse to observe even the basic decencies.
And the problem in stand-alone houses is that you literally do stand alone. There’s no building manager, strata manager or Executive Committee to back you up when your neighbours turn nasty.
Of all the bashings and even shootings that have happened when neighbourhood disputes got out of hand, I can’t think of one that occurred in an apartment block. So can we stop this myth right here? The problem isn’t where people live, it’s how people live.
Live in a strata block and you might increase the chances of having an antisocial neighbour simply because you have more of them – but you also have plenty of ways of dealing with them. Live in a house and you’re on your own … in every sense. I hope you are never unlucky enough to have a nasty neighbour move in next door – then you’ll find out here’s another side to this coin.