› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Neighbours have annexed common property › Current Page
You and whoever else you can muster in your Owners Corporation need to go in hard and fast on this. It’s a straight out ‘land grab’. I’d sideline the Strata Manager and get your Strata Committee to go with you if you can… or just other owners who are being disenfranchised – had a lend of.
Have the Strata Committee (or alt-Strata Committee if need be 🙂 tell them in writing they have two weeks to remove the gate, fence and hedge (if deemed necessary). If they don’t, you need to get a tradie to do it – ‘at arms length’ to the OC.
Yes, this makes me cranky! Here’s why. Over about 10 years in our block, the 12 ground floor owners were allowed to have their own little gardens and outdoor areas on Common Property. It worked well and lessened the OC’s gardening spend. But then a few were sold, one by one, and the expectation was they were ‘garden units’. Of course real estate agents wrongly claimed they were. Noisy and disturbing gatherings, parties even, were held and this building definitely was not designed with this in mind.
Then one day a couple of bollards joined by a cable went up. Two weeks later a fence with locked gate. Though these were bought to their attention, the Strata Committee did nothing. Predictably a month or so later at the AGM there was a fortunately badly researched, poorly written by-law on the agenda, attempting to give ground floor owners Exclusive Use of the land in front of their units without having to pay for it. It was painful for all concerned but this was headed off at the pass.
Act now Wondering, before it gets any worse. This land belongs to all owners, not the one owner. It’s not free land.