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Any thoughts anyone on the post below?
I was wondering if this matter has been resolved but as there were no responses it is doubtful if MarianneM still monitors the site.
Here is a slightly different situation. In a small block with adjoining courtyards one owner has let a tree (technically a shrub) get out of control and it is now about 4 metres tall and blocks sunlight into our courtyard. The non resident owner refuses to reply to correspondence and is totally non communicative.
Any thoughts anyone?
Here is a further question to ponder – assuming that the Owners Corporation did not know of the attic modifications at the time that they were carried out, and only discovered the work at a later time, does the Owners Corporation have any potential liability if a person is injured whilst in either climbing up a ladder to the ceiling space or whilst in the (common property) space?
In the event of damage to a person or the ceiling would the insurer have any grounds for refusing to settle if they discovered that the modifications had not been approved?
Dear JB
My view is that, without any evidence to the contrary, you will find that the roof space is Common Property. If the previous owner had been granted exclusive use of the space by the Owners Corporation then this would have needed to have been approved as such and recorded in the minutes. Maybe you could enquire from the Secretary of the Owners Corporation as to the history of the “enhancement”.
It may well be that the previous owner carried out this work without any approval and as such you should be careful as to how you use the space. If there is power to the area you should be careful in case the work was not carried out by a licensed electrician and the area may be highly dangerous. If you intend to use the area for storage I would get an electrician to check the wiring. Apart from all that I would be careful of liability issues as if damage is done to the common property you might be personally liable to the Owners Corporation. It doesn’t sound like a good idea to make this “habitable” and I guess you mean for it to be suitable for people to live in your roof space (!).
Hope this is of some assistance.
Nobody should have to put up with this level of abuse and threats. It sounds to me that you have sufficient evidence to go to the police and make a claim of harrassment.
Also look here https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/pollution/noise.htm
Noise pollution can be reported to your local council and to the Police assistance line on 131 444.
See also Jimmy’s note re Noise Abatement orders.
Every time one of you receives a threat immediately report it and every time that there is a party going on into the night report it. This way you will protect yourself because these people are mindless bullies and you have to stand up to them. Keep a diary of every single event as you may one day have to go to court over this and then you will be well prepared.
Good luck
I omitted “instructive”….thanks.
You should have a by-law similar to model by-law 17 contained in schedule 1 of the Strata Schemes Management Act as follows:
Appearance of lot
(1) The owner or occupier of a lot must not, without the written consent of the owners corporation, maintain within the lot anything visible from outside the lot that, viewed from outside the lot, is not in keeping with the rest of the building.
It is a question as to how prescriptive you want to be as the whole thing can become a bit subjective. However, if the EC resolve that the owner is in breach of the particular by-law then you don’t have a problem – except to enforce it.
If there is still a problem with the owner then I would have a fire safety inspection, as that in my opinion, could be a bigger issue.
Sound like a fantastic article Jimmy, well written as usual, even poetic(?)…..
To assist my Ludditic tendencies, where do I find it???
It really is very difficult to find a good managing agent and the only satisfactory way is by referral, as Jimmy states.
We moved into our 4 lot block, 18 years ago and had to put up with the most useless manager you could imagine. He regarded me as “difficult” because I tended to question him on basic things such as building maintenance and the incorrect drafting of accounts. Shortly after we moved in we were given a notice of the balance of a special levy which had been raised and which had not previously been properly recorded! We didn’t raise a fuss as we wanted to start off on the right foot and not antagonise our new neighbours. Silly us! We had water running into our upstairs cupboard because of a problem with the sealing of the penthouse verandah above. This took 6 months to resolve because he just ignored all our requests. He then sent out a letter one day saying that he had consulted with his engineer (at a fee of $800.00) and that the verandah etc needed repair and that he had approved a firm to do the work at a cost of around $15,000. We we were smartly on the phone and told him that the EC had not approved the work and that it wasn’t happening. I then obtained an independant contractor who did the work for $1,400. After numerous other problems with accounting errors etc I lodged a complaint with Fair Trading which was upheld as he was in numerous breaches of the Act and we were able to get rid of him.
The replacement agent from a large firm in Crows Nest were also not so bright. They charged for everything you could imagine, storage of documents, phone calls, postage, stationery etc but were unable to pay tradesmen so that we were receiving letters of intent to sue for non payment. The person doing the accounts could not balance and the budget was a joke. After 2 years of this nonsense we decided to manage it ourselves and have never looked back. I am secretary and we have money in the bank, have organised tenders and managed a large repainting project with no hassles. I do the accounts and banking and everyone is happy. There is a bit of work to do and organise but one other owner and I do it all with no difficulty. One owner is in dreamland and wouldn’t lift a finger to help and the other owner is an absentee landlord who doesn’t want to spend any money (tough on that – majority rules!).
So if you have the expertise you might want to do it yourself but in some places, taking into account the personalities involved, you might want to have a competent external firm do the work. At least that way you don’t have to personally harangue your neighbour for late payment of levies.
Good luck
I doubt that it is illegal, after all they are illegally parking on your property! You just have to be sure that the owner can’t say that you maliciously damaged their property which WOULD be illegal, even though on your premises. It will certainly get their attention and then they have to remove it before they can drive off which may discourage them from doing it again.
You might also want to circularise your residents and tenants and advise them to be on the lookout for other cars which tailgate them into the private parking area. Of course if they let the other cars do it (for a mate etc) then they would be in breach of the by-laws themselves I would think.
It is really difficult to do any thing about this sort of thing as it is not a police matter as such. You could take action for trespass if the offender is a repeat one and you do have evidence by way of the CCTV footage. Active discouragement is the way to go. (Maybe you could talk to the other person on this forum who had a car mysteriously removed, plates taken off and trashed!)
Maybe your sign should also say words to the effect…
“your vehicle is illegally parked and is therefore trespassing on our property. We have photographic evidence which will identify you and action will be taken in any future cases without further notice as well as notification to the police”. Of course, don’t threaten too loudly unless you intend to take action.
I am not sure how many times the alarms have falsely activated but once would be enough I would think if you are being fined. The other problem of course is that if the alarms are not operating correctly then there may be an actual fire and the residents will ignore the warning as “it is probably just another false alarm”. So the matter needs to be resolved.
I would start by asking the local fire brigade if they would carry out an inspection and determine if the alarms are suitable for your particular environment and if so whether the sensitivity can be adjusted. You will then hopefully have some ammunition to approach the company which installed the system and insist that they remedy the defects. The installation and products should be under warranty anyway.