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I have just sat through my first Fair Trading mediation, holding the hand of a friend who had raised a complaint, and I can now confirm what Flat Chat readers have been telling me for years: it’s a lottery that depends way too much on the calibre of the person in the middle.
I can’t go into detail but suffice it to say it was an issue about neighbour noise. My friend’s strata manager was there and the other party was at the end of the phone.
After the preambles, the mediator asked the strata manager to present his case and it all went awry almost immediately.
Strata Manager: “The complaint is about excessive noise and …”
Mediator: “So this is about the level of noise?”
SM: “It’s not just about the level of noise, it’s when it occurred.”
M: “So it’s the time of the noise?”
SM: “Yes …”
M: “Not so much the level …”
SM: “It’s the level and the time … it was from late-night parties.”
M: “Make up your mind. Everyone is entitled to have a party occasionally, especially in that area.”
It went rapidly downhill from there. I was told off for interrupting then, bizarrely, rebuked for not speaking up when I rolled my eyes (because the other party wouldn’t be able to see me).
Eventually, my friend, the strata manager and the noisy neighbour ignored the umpire and came to an amicable and workable solution.
It could have been a deliberate tactic to get us talking to each other but I doubt it, as the mediator was now sitting back, sulking.
Maybe that was because, tired of hearing by-laws dismissed in favour of what was “acceptable” in the big city, I told her that everyone on our side had a pretty good idea about strata law and how things were supposed to work.
“So you know more than me?” she said.
At least she could see my shrug of “you said it, I didn’t”.
Have you had good, bad or indifferent experiences at a Fair Trading mediation? Have your say on the Flat Chat Forum.
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