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[kdigs]

I live in a strata townhouse complex. My neighbour (single connecting wall – downstairs lounge, upstairs main bedroom) is a fellow owner-occupier, although he rented out his apartment for around 8 years, from just after I bought my place in 2002 until late 2010. Since he returned in 2010 he has been renovating. Not on-and-off, DIY a renovation job and take a break, but what appears to have been every weekend since 29 October 2010. In the first place, no notice was given to any of the residents (owner/occupier or tenant) that invasive renovation work was going to be carried out. In the second place, this carried on, every day for three months. Since January 2011, when he started working, it has been going on every weekend (except for when he went on holidays, and I cannot certify that it occurred when I was overseas for a number of months either). Some weekends he started at 7am, like the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the weekend that he used the concrete planer to level his part of the communal concrete slab in order to lay floorboards. The sound and the vibrations were enough to start a war. They were even enough that other residents in the small complex complained about the noise, those that weren’t on the communal slab. But all our complaints fell on deaf ears (probably caused by all his renovating). It is now April 2012. How long is long enough? It appears that renovating is his hobby. Over the Easter long weekend he renovated for 14 hours on Good Friday, starting at 9am (My knocking on the door at 8.30pm was not answered), continued into Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday (again until 9.30pm – again the knocking at the door was ignored). At present it is only myself (and the neighbour on the other side of me) who is affected by his constant hammering away, and continuous use of powertools. But the fact that only one or two people out of 13 are bothered by this noise is not sufficient reason for the body corporate to do nothing about the noise! I have made complaints. I have sought resolution. All to no avail. I have a right to the quiet enjoyment of my property, a right that has been denied to me for eighteen months now. The breaches of the Strata Titles act that I have identified are thus: S116(2), S117(1), Plus the primary by-law: An owner or occupier of a lot must not create any noise on a lot or the common property likely to interfere with the peaceful enjoyment of the owner or occupier of another lot or of any person lawfully using common property. Am I correct in this? We have our annual meeting next Monday. But I am concerned that he will start renovating again this weekend when I will have my partner and his children staying with me. Is there any way I can seek an immediate injunction against his continuing renovations?

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