@Nettie said:
Jimmy suggested not to go to Fair Trading for mediation. Is community justice a better option from your point of view?
I’ve gone to a mediation at Fair Trading in the past and found it very frustrating. The mediator got very annoyed with me when I corrected her on a couple of points of strata law. And then her whole approach to the mediation was a joke.
She thought compromise was a desirable solution when it was quite clear the other party was in the wrong and he even said so himself. All I wanted was a commitment that he wouldn’t play music at rock concert volumes at 3am and he said he wouldn’t guarantee it. The mediator said I had to decide whether it was the volume of the music or the time it was played.
OK, that was one mediator in one case and I could have told FT that I was coming in and I would have got the gold standard treatment, I’m sure. But that’s hardly the point, is it?
Anyway, I would rather have a mediation by someone who doesn’t pretend to know strata law when they don’t. And right now both Fair Trading and NCAT are seriously underfunded and understaffed.
Meeting the strata manager and chair on your own is not a mediation – it’s a potential confrontation (regardless of how well-intentioned the other party is). You need a referee and a “second” too if you can find one.