› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Living in strata › Roundup: Bullies in the block › Current Page
@dolphi.dolphin said:
Police won’t help; they will only act if there’s physical violence or the threat of it.
Police, just like the rest of society, are just getting to grips with the realities of strata living. Your average front desk constable is going to respond exactly as you have outlined, because they don’t know any better.
In fact, psychological abuse, verbal abuse and harassment can all be grounds for an Apprehended Personal Violence Order (click here for more information) more commonly known as an AVO.
I would start by asking to speak to a community liaison officer who may not be specifically in charge of this area but is likely to be more sympathetic. And, hey, a strata scheme is a community. They might decide that a phone call warning this person may be enough. Or you may have to go to court and get an AVO.
On the question of a threat of violence, I once called the police about a noisy neighbour, they asked if there was violence or a threat of violence.
I said: “Not yet … depends how quickly you get here.”
“Has he threatened you?”
“Nope, but as soon as I put this phone down, I’m going to go and threaten him.”
“Sir, if there is any violence, we will use this phone call as evidence.”
“Me too,” I said.
They were here in five minutes.
As described above, you could always put a motion to the committee to discuss bullying by certain members of the committee, then get it all out in the open and on the record.