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A distant relative of an owner has taken up residence in his vacant apartment without the owner’s permission. The “squatter” is noisy, disruptive, allegedly damages common property and behaves in a very threatening manner when anyone complains. My tenants and others are planning to move out solely because of his behaviour. The owner wants him gone but says he is hamstrung by the law in trying to evict him. As he is not an official resident, neither on a lease nor the strata roll, we probably can’t issue him with by-law breaches. Or can we? What can we as a committee do to curb his behaviour, which might even persuade him to leave?
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I checked with our sponsors Bannerman Lawyers and they confirm that this is an issue between the squatter and the owner and since the squatter has no legal standing in the scheme, then it’s the owner who must be pursued over by-law breaches.
Now, it sounds like the committee has a deal of sympathy with the owner so they may be less than keen to blitz them with notices to comply over by-law breaches. So what’s to be done.
Guerilla tactics like supergluing the lock and cutting off electricity are probably illegal. However, if the owner ASKS the strata committee to cut off the electricity , that would be a different matter.
I wonder what would happen if you got a letter from the owner saying they are worried about fire safety following a recent renovation and could you please cut off electricity and maybe even gas until it is checked.
Or how about this? With the owner’s permission, get tradies to remove the front door and take it away for “inspection” and only replace it when the squatter has left.
The problem with people who choose not to follow the rules is that they count on us to be law-abiding. Does anyone have any legal ideas for dealing with this situation?
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We are in NSW – Our bylaws include behaviour by “occupants” which would probably cover this situation if they had the same. The legal relationship between the lot owner and occupant is not a strata problem, but the behaviour of occupants is. They can be given a Notice to Comply and then compliance action in NCAT if further breaches.
Could you hold a meeting and approve a change of locks? The front door of the apartment is common property and so is the front door of the block, so potentially you could approve a change of locks to just that one apartment and the front door of the block.
Then give him two weeks notice that the locksmith is coming, and new keys will be delivered to the owner, or to the tenant if the owner gives written permission for the tenant to receive new keys directly. The squatter-tenant will know that he’s not going to getting those new keys.
This gives the squatter time to move his belongings out. If he doesn’t move out, he’ll find himself unable to get in until his family member turns up and lets him get in and move his stuff out.
If you’re worried that he’ll cause damage during the two weeks after he receives the notice (because he’ll know he’s being targeted), make a motion that ALL locks are being changed “due to a recent security breach”. You don’t have to go through with that. Just change the locks that need changing and make a note in the minutes of a subsequent meeting that the security issue was resolved by changing only the locks of Apartment X and the front door.
The family member who owns the property should be prepared to help here – they are partly responsible for this as they shared their keys in the first place. They should be on site to supervise the exit of the squatter to ensure no damage occurs at that time (or they can hire security). And even if the squatter exits peacefully, you probably need to change the locks to prevent the squatter from returning with a replicated key.
Seems kind of bizarre that a ‘distant relative’ would be permitted or allowed to reside in the apartment without paying rent and without the owners permission??? He must have been given a key to the front door to get inside in the first place, so he must have the owners permission? Must be more to this story than it seems? I mean who lets people you barely know reside in your property particularly when the owner is paying council rates and strata levies without any rental income coming in to cover it? If the owner wants him gone, then there are several ways around the law to get rid of a ‘squatter’.
I always wonder about these people on Facebook who post that they need a house sitter or pet sitter to reside in their home while they go away on holiday. Who in their right mind would permit a total stranger free range of their home?
He must have been given a key to the front door to get inside in the first place, so he must have the owners permission? Must be more to this story than it seems?
I believe there was an intermediary who unknowingly allowed the relative to have access without the owner’s approval. The fact remains that the occupant shouldn’t be there and the owner and the neighbours want him gone.
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Our bylaws include behaviour by “occupants” which would probably cover this situation if they had the same.
He may be occupying the apartment but if he isn’t on the strata roll, then he has no official standing when it comes to Notices to Comply and potential fines. They would be the apartment owner’s problem, as they are in this case.
The simple answer would be to hammer the apartment owner until they did something, but it wouldn’t do much for community spirit and there’s no guarantee that Tribunal action would fly if the owners could show they were doing everything possible in their limited power.
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Actually, the answer may be for the owner to register the occupant on the strata roll, then the committee can start issuing Notices To Comply which carry threats of fines.
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