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I live in WA part of 8 townhouses, half are owner occupied and half are rented
We have a noisy tenant and we have issued a Notice to Comply (to tenants and owners) however part of the Notice to Comply states that they must comply with the obligations within their Lease. The parents own the townhouse and the son is living in the place along with various room mates. Their is no real estate agency to go to and there is no Lease is place between the parents and the son. Is their a default/standard lease that the Strata can use? If so where can I find it?
Thanks
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there probably is a standard lease but unless both parties have signed it, it would have no standing.
Your best avenue (and i have to admit my knowledge of WA strata law is sketchy) is to pursue the owners rather than the occupants. The parents are the proprietors – send them the Notices To Comply with the by-laws rather than the leas, and follow up with orders. By the way, over here in the East we call this Brat Dumping (or, at least, I do)
Schedule 1 standard by-laws for WA say this in Section 1 (my emphasis):
(2) A proprietor, occupier or other resident of a lot shall —
(b) not use the lot or permit it to be used in such manner or for such purpose as causes a nuisance to any occupier of another lot (whether a proprietor or not) or the family of such an occupier;
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this web page, run by West Australia Legal Aid has a stack of links to the relevant legislation and information.
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I believe our building has been “Brat Dumped”. But with a slight twist.
A couple of years ago a 2-bedroom apartment in our building in inner Melbourne was sold. I met the person buying it – a twenty-something man who was at the auction with his parents.
When the legal OC paperwork was done, it showed the twenty-something as the new owner (not the parents).
Soon after the man moved in the parties and noise began. This included all night parties going through to the next morning (7, 8, 9 am). Police were often called. We initially sent complaint letters to him either directly or through the SM. Things would settle down for a few weeks but then start again. The person making the noise (that affected all other apartments in the building) considered that his behaviour was fairly reasonable. “I can stay up all night if I want, can’t I?”. Well, yes, but you can’t disturb others if you do.
I went to the police and to the council to see what more could be done. Both initially suggested that I should be talking to the Owners Corporation!
We (the OC) issued a breach notice and I was determined to escalate the matter to VCAT if things didn’t improve. VCAT publish decisions for all to see. Win or lose, a lot of details of the matter as well as names (and effectively addresses if you are a lot resident) are published. That alone should be quite a deterrent for “offenders”.
But then his sister moved in. And although she is somewhat noisy too, it seems she doesn’t like being disturbed all night either. So things have settled down a lot (still with some noise at times but not like before). And it make us (in the OC) more convinced that the apartment was financed by the parents for the kids. The parents don’t live far away either.
I thought about a Noise Abatement Order but couldn’t find too much information about it that related to Victoria. Is it just for NSW?
@Austman said:
I thought about a Noise Abatement Order but couldn’t find too much information about it that related to Victoria. Is it just for NSW?
Have a look here and HERE. The latter, a factsheet about noise in Victoria from the Law Handbook says this:
If a noise problem amounts to a nuisance within the terms of this Act, residents should lodge a complaint with the council. A council must investigate the complaint and either take action itself or, if it believes that the matter is best settled privately, inform the resident of any methods of settling the matter privately.
If the council is satisfied that a nuisance exists, section 197 of the PHWA (Public Health Welfare Act) requires it to serve an abatement notice on the person causing the nuisance. This notice identifies the nuisance and requires that steps be taken by the person causing the notice to stop the nuisance from occurring. If the notice is not complied with, the council may seek court orders to direct the responsible person to comply with the notice or otherwise take such measures as specified in the order. The court may also order the person causing the nuisance to pay costs of the council in taking court action, and impose a penalty for non-compliance with the notice. Non-compliance with the court order will attract a further penalty.
A complainant (person making a complaint about the noise) who believes that the council has failed to investigate the nuisance within “a reasonable time” may use section 63 and approach the Magistrates’ Court directly. If the court is satisfied that the complaint is reasonable it can order the council to pay any costs or expenses incurred by the complainant.
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