I’m going to start with a couple of questions that I have borrowed from other sources. The first was in my newsletter which went out belatedly this week (Sorry!).
In was in the middle of hosting a writing workshop in Hobart when one of the participants had to take an urgent call.
Apparently a new owner in her small unit block was insisting that he was allowed to fence off the area of common property nearest to his ground floor flat because, well, he owns a share of it and it’s obviously only for his use and he doesn’t want other owners on it.
“He can’t seem to grasp that it’s common property for everyone, even if no one actually uses it,’ she said.
“You’re in luck,’ I said. “I know a bit about strata. Maybe if you get a local real estate agent to put a value on the land he wants to take over, then tell him he needs to make an offer to buy it if he wants exclusive use of it.”
‘What if he makes an offer?” she said.
“You don’t have to accept it,” I replied. “You just need to let him know that if he takes it over, it has a value and therefore that would be theft.” Result, one happy writer!
The other two questions I got on my regular fortnightly spot on Afternoons with James O’Loghlin on ABC 702 Sydney.
The first was from a listener whose downstairs neighbour has palm trees growing so high from her terrace that they are blocking sunlight into her flat.
The downstairs owner says the terrace is lot property so the owners corporation can’t do anything about it. So what are the shaded neighbour’s options if the strata committee can’t or won’t get involved? I’ve offered a solution HERE.
Another caller said her father’s townhouse has a step from the lot property terrace up to the gate and it makes it difficult from him to get in and out with his mobility walker.
They want to install a ramp but the strata committee are a bit sniffy about that plan. What can she do? I did a bit of digging and have answer HERE.
If you’re interested you can hear the whole session on ABC radio Afternoons with James O’Loghlin HERE (just whizz through to the one-hour mark to catch the start of my session).
Elsewhere in the forum
- Residents in a neighbouring block have cut a gate in the adjoining fence and are parking in our car park. What can we do? That’s HERE.
- OCN Tasmania now has a contact address. That’s HERE.
- Can an owner’s corporation run a letting business. The answer to this one may surprise you. That’s HERE.
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Forum: All that plus the neighbours who’ve cut through the fence from their block to install a gate and use the adjoining scheme’s visitor parking.
[See the full original blog post at: Forum: Land grab, tree shade and a rejected ramp To comment on the post, click on reply here.]
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