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Whale & Struggler
Thanks for your posts, it can be very frustrating at times & rightly or wrongly, I have now learned to ‘play the game’ & will do so accordingly to achieve the outcomes I want however I note these desired outcomes are all being fair & equitable & not disadvantaging any other parties.
The people whom taught me what I can & cannot get away with were critically problematic owners & while the strata system allowed me to address their many breaches & forced them to remedy many of their wrong doings, they also got away with a lot for the flimsy of reasons & the most ridiculous rationales from hearing rulings – eg they were allowed to keep common property & include it as part of their lot (despite it being clearly depicted on the strata plan as common property & all the wiring etc supporting this & the guy who drew the plan confirming in writing he did NOT make a mistake etc, etc, etc) because – wait for it … THEY RENOVATED IT DRAMATICALLY OVER THE YEARS so they get to keep it – what!?!? … during these ‘years’ of renovation we were disputing this & contstantly liasing with the managing agent & OFT & CTTT … it took them so long to address it (tried a statutory appointment of a compulsory strata manager who mediated with the owner for years etc).
There are also instances of fraud (forging other owners signatures), sending tradespeople away whom have been authorised to do work at the property, unauthorised changes to the outward appearance of the building, assault & battery on common property, mail theft, harassment, abuse, attempts to change the strata plan withou the knowledge of other owners, vandalism of other owners private property, preventing other residents from washing & drying clothes, verbal abuse of propsective tenants, death threats & the list goes on & on like a bad movie. You might be thinking “But what did YOU do to invite all this?” All we did was ask them when we moved in, to please not park in front of our garage & to please remove their personal possessions from the common laundry so we could install our machines & that we did not want to sell them our garage.
Despite my disappointment & disullusion, I am somewhat ‘stuck in strata’ – by choice – as I have sunk so much time, energy & money into this property for the very reason that I am not leaving – ever – excellent location & I own 2 of the 4 units & have plans to own more in the future … I’m just noting that if I had my time again, I would not consider strata living.