#25642
Jimmy-T
Keymaster


    @proudsceptic
    said:
    Re your comment about being forced to sell up …. It sounds as though you would not have had a happy time living next door to your partying neighbour whether the wall was removed or not. 

    I am aware of the options open to me to deal with a noisy neighbour. But there were several other points that I made here that are relevant to this discussion.

    The first is that by removing the bedroom, my neighbour was removing a noise buffer from his intended activity.

    Secondly, by creating more “party room”, the neighbour was effectively planning to increase the noise that no longer had a buffer.

    … I personally would have requested a structural engineer’s report rather than rely on a report by a builder …

    Bully for you! But your request would have been rejected because it had no legal basis. Regardless of your thoughts about change of layout, our local council’s planning regulations state that plans to change the configuration of an apartment require a DA.

    However, this resident – a big wheel in real estate – found it very easy to get a builder who would sign a certificate of Complying Development that the council couldn’t even check.

    Council told me that if I had a problem I should pursue the builder as they had signed the certificate. Once a certificate of complying development is issued, they said, Council Planning has no further say in the matter (unless, presumably, you can prove it was fraudulent).

    The strata committee has to take some share of the blame here as they didn’t press the case on whether the change of layout was appropriate.

    Finally, noise complaints against this neighbour are proceeding through Fair Trading and NCAT and I have to admit it wasn’t the only reason for selling.  But it did make the decision a lot easier.

    I totally disagree that the removal of walls to change the layout of an apartment and noise issues are totally separate.  Just ask anyone who discovers their upstairs neighbour has relocated their bathroom to above their bedroom. 

    The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.