#25938

I have unsuccessfully attempted to sue for defamation and also to get an Apprehended Personal Violence Order in a strata situation and would counsel anyone against doing either.

The only APVO that has any chance of working is if you convince the police to do one and even then, they usually don’t completely work. Police are only interested if there is ‘violence’ and sometimes ‘the threat of violence’. You’ll need witnesses and / or damning evidence physical which is really only conclusive video or written threats.

As for defamation, as a barrister said to me, “defamation is for millionaires and media personalities”.

You will waste a lot of time and money and get nowhere I’m sad to say. You will have many sleepless nights and get unhealthy.

However, keep any correspondence or recordings, video or audio, voicemails, anonymous notes… everything. You may need to be able to prove something “On the balance pf probability” not necessarily “Beyond reasonable doubt”.

Your neighbour almost certainly has an Anti-Social Personality Disorder. Get the book “The Sociopath Next Door: the ruthless versus the rest of us” by Martha Stout PhD out of the library. You’ll learn what makes your neighbour tick. The only things she probably fears are being exposed and losing control. The best revenge is to ignore them and ‘live well’.