NoPain – In my opinion you have a couple of avenues to explore: (1) The Lease conditions and whether they have been breached, and (2) the by-laws and whether they have been breached.
Try and obtain a copy of the Lease from your strata manager. Is there a By-law for the lease? What are the conditions of the lease? How long does the Lease have to run? Are there any conditions in the Lease between your Strata scheme and the gym owner regarding hours of operation, noise etc? Is the gym owner complying with the conditions?
NB: Did the acoustic technician suggest any ways that the gym owner could lessen the noise and/or vibrations from the thud of the dropped weights?
Also, obtain a copy of the by-laws from your strata manager. What By-laws does your scheme have regarding the issues of: noise, nuisance, behaviour of invitees etc?
The gym owner may be breaching various by-laws.
You stated: The strata committee are not interested in taking this further – many of them attend the gym and can’t understand our concerns.
In my opinion this is an unreasonable attitude for the SC to take, particularly given that you have proof from an acoustic technician that the noise level is excessive.
The fact that the majority of residents may not experience excessive noise does not necessarily mean that unreasonable noise has not occurred. If even one person has been subjected to an objectively unreasonable interference, a by-law breach may have occurred.
From case law, on the flip side of that argument is that the nuisance “needs to be an inconvenience that materially interferes with the ordinary notions of a ‘plain and sober’ person, and not merely the ‘elegant or dainty’ habits of the complainant”.
The SC has a duty to act on behalf of the OC. The OC is responsible for the management of the strata scheme and the common property for all owners in the strata scheme [s9]. The leased area would be deemed to be common property.
If an SC has good reason to believe that a by-law has been breached, it would arguably be unreasonable not to take action to pursue the matter if the breach is material or is adversely affecting any owner or occupier. There is a requirement to comply with the by-laws . A notice to comply with the by-law must be issued by the OC rather than the SC. The notice to comply must be decided by the OC at a General Meeting .
If the SC are unwilling to listen to your concerns about the gym regarding the possible breach of the lease conditions, or a possible breach of the by-laws with regard to noise, nuisance, behaviour of invitees etc then you could seek mediation through the Office of Fair Trading. Other steps can be taken after that.