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[UberOwner]

Two owners in our block are feuding.  They don’t speak.  One has reported the other to Police for something.  It’s nasty.  The core of the problem is unrelated to strata living – these owners know each other from outside the building.  One (Owner A) wants the strata manager to issue a noise complaint to the other (Owner B).  If there are genuine noise issues, then Owner A has a right to ask this and for the issue to be taken seriously by the strata manager and Committee.  But what if this is a vexatious request?  And then Owner B is likely to come back and want to make a complaint about Owner A.  Actually, Owner B is likely to “punish” Owner A in some other way – killing potplants, tipping coffee onto Owner A’s balcony or something like that.  It’s happened before.

So far, the Committee is trying to keep out of this, but this is the first time we’ve had a request for a formal letter to be written and I feel the Committee is about to become a new weapon in this feud.

Any advice on how the Committee can keep out of a private feud between two owners?  By the way, both of them are on the Committee (everyone in our small building is on the Committee).

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[kaindub]

A formal letter means  nothing in the   context of strata.

The only notice that is enforceable is a Notice to Comply. It can only be issued for  breach of a bylaw or the act.

It requires the approval of the committee to issue one. In the formal Notice to  comply it is required to state time and date of the breach, as well as the bylaw or part of the act concerned.

So things like ” he is always noisy” are very non specific and would  otherwise warrant a NTC.

It’s also up to the chairperson to control  committee meetings. That can mean adjourning meetings if they get too rowdy, and  9ntrolling the amount of time each member speaks.  Remember it’s not a shouting match, it’s a debate.  It’s the majority  one that carries the motion, not the volume of the arguments.

[UberOwner]

Thank you.  I just looked more closely at the letter drafted by the strata manager and it lists specific times of day when the noise occurs and says that if they don’t stop, a formal notice to comply will be issued.

I gather that if Owner A wants us to go down that path at a later time, he/she will need to have better evidence than she has produced so far such as noise recordings or a diary or the like.  At the moment it’s all hearsay (although someone in another apartment has also heard the noises but is refusing to get personally involved in the noise complaint – has said he/she won’t back up Owner A’s complaint and doesn’t want to get involved).

I’m just so reluctant to have the Committee get into the middle of this.  I’m the Chair.  We are not due for a formal meeting for some time so this is all happening via email requests and the like.  Neither A or B turned up to our last meeting which is a good thing in my opinion.

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