› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Neighbour noise › Tricky situation with “legal noise” › Current Page
This can indeed be a tricky situation as it’s difficult to know when allowing your neighbours a little leeway becomes counter-productive and extends a problem that should be resolved quickly and as cleanly as possible.
My recommendation would be a five-step process. The first time noise annoys you, you contact the neighbours and say, “Look, you probably don’t realise this but your party noises (or surround sound , whatever) are really disturbing …”
If it happens again, ask your Executive Committee or strata manager to send them a letter explaining that there are two sets of laws they need to be aware of. The by-laws of the building don’t allow anyone to make noise that disturbs another resident’s peaceful enjoyment of their lot at any time. Then there are the State laws that forbid noisy behaviour after 10 pm on weekdays and midnight at weekends. Both of these apply. If the EC or Strata Manager won’t send the letter, send it yourself and let the neighbours know that you don’t want to take further action but you will if the problem continues.
The next time it happens, you are justified in getting serious about this. Send a letter to your executive committee and/or strata manager explaining that these residents are in breach of noise by-laws and asking that a Notice To Comply be served on them. Copy this to the noisy neighbours. If the neighbours are tenants, explain that by being in breach of by-laws they are also in breach of their tenancy agreement and could be evicted. Warn them that if this persists, you will take action, albeit reluctantly, and inform their landlords about the problem.
If they continue with the bad behaviour, pursue the Notice To Comply with the Executive Committee or Strata Manager and contact their landlords or rental agent telling them that there is a problem and remind them that there is a legal precedent whereby landlords are responsible for the behaviour of their tenants and can have a Noise Abatement order served on them, the landlords, if they are aware of a noise problem but do nothing about it.
If the landlords, executive committee or strata manager won’t do anything to help, go to your district court and ask for a Noise Abatement order. If the neighbours ignore that, it is a contempt of court and the police definitely will turn up and shut them down and may even arrest them.
I realise this can cause a few weeks of bad feeling but that’s preferable to months of sleepless weekends. And perhaps if the opportunity arises, at some point you can sit down and talk this through with your neighbours. But when push comes to shove, all strata residents – owners and tenants – have the right to peace and quiet. Nobody has the right to make excessive noise and disturb others, whether they are in strata or free-standing homes.