I live in a 4 lot plan with 2 owner/occupiers & 2 tenants (1 of which is mine, next door).
The owner of the other tenanted lot felt free to ‘instruct’ my various tenants about all manner of things including that they are not allowed to have a washing basket on top of their washing machine in the common laundry as well as telling another one to “Do something with that garden”, referring to the COMMON PROPERTY garden bed in front of their unit.
However, now that this owner has moved out & has tenants of his own, we have strict instructions not to communicate with his tenants despite them repeatedly coming to us with questions about what they are allowed and not allowed to do.
Our managing agent has told us to tell these tenants to contact their real estate agent about any questions they have as this is the specific request of the real estate agent and the owner. We are willing to do this but we are thinking that if this is an issue for the tenant – apparently they don’t like us telling them yes or no but don’t stop asking – we can’t make sense of that bit, the real estate agent and the owner, we wonder why the agent/owner don’t instruct THEIR tenant not to approach the owner/occupiers with questions and requests.
Anyway, it’s actually preferable to us to have it all go through official channels as it makes it easier to say no to the tenant and maintain a positive relationship with them – they have asked for all manner of things from storing their 4 bikes in the common laundry, to having a compost bin and vegetable garden on common property to storing gym equipment and outdoor furniture, including a fire on comon property. They didn’t ask about the cat though – funny that. They also tell us about (the many) repairs that are required in their unit and at first, we were active in assisting in having these repaired by arranging quotes (via the Managing Agent) for the EC to approve etc which their owner would have input to of course, but now, they are on their own and can wait for their (lax) owner to finally get around to it.