› Flat Chat Strata Forum › By-laws and outlaws › Floorboard By-laws › Current Page
BonnieB – the floor of your lot is common property, where the removal of carpet and similar “soft” flooring fitted there and its replacement with “hard” materials such as laminated “floating” floors and/or timber flooring has proven to be so problematic in strata buildings in terms of increased noise and vibration then affecting neighbours, that FlatChat has THIS dedicated forum on the topic.
I urge you to peruse the linked forum before you make a decision to install any type of floorboards, and to particularly note the willingness of suppliers and installers to readily offer guarantees about the sound insulating properties of their products, and to then quickly walk away from those when neighbours subsequently raise noise complaints with the owners corporation.
Now in answer to your question, the floor is common property and the by-law that you have quoted means that the owner of a lot can install timber and similar products on/over that floor provided they first advise the owners corporation of their intention to do so, and provide details including the contractor involved, when the works are proposed, what part/s of the lot are involved, the type of product to be used, the acoustic underlay to be used and its specification including its as-installed performance as calculated by the manufacturer.
The executive committee of the owners corporation may not unreasonably refuse its consent to your proposal, but can do so conditionally such as with the times of work and to the requirement for the installer/s to be properly insured, or it has evidence of past problems arising from similar works at the scheme it can refuse consent.
You also need to be aware that any consent given by an executive committee is on the basis of the information that you and your suppliers / installers provide, and that if a core component such as the acoustic underlay proves ineffective and noise complaints subsequently arise, then you are responsible for correcting that situation even if those suppliers / installers walk away, and that you may upon application to the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal by the owners corporation, be issued with Orders to at your cost restore the floor of your property to its original state.
Finally, the noise and vibration related disturbance to neighbours following owners’ installation of various types of timber floors has become such a big problem, that the new NSW Strata Legislation to be introduced in November will no longer permit such decisions to be made by executive committees, but will instead require that those to be determined only by a majority vote at a General Meeting.
So if you’re determined to seek consent, make sure that your chosen suppliers and installers indemnify you if noise / vibration and similar complaints subsequently arise, or better still have a look at good quality timber patterned vinyl flooring.