Want to know the biggest problem with by-laws? It’s not that they’re too restrictive – it’s that nobody reads them and too few enforce them. If you want proof, look at steady stream of complaints from residents whose selfish sods of neighbours have ignored the rules and laid noisy flooring to enhance the value of their investment properties.
“My upstairs neighbours have a timber floor. It wasn’t so bad when the last tenants where there but the new tenants have a pool table and every day (almost 24/7), not only can we hear them smashing the balls, we also hear when the ball frequently falls on to the floor,” writes Allfields1 on the Flat Chat Forum.
“We told our real estate and they told us there is not much we can do about it – apart from asking them to put rugs under the pool table. Well that’s not good enough and we are taking them to the CTTT. We don’t have any acoustic specialists but we do have pictures from when they advertised the unit for rent, along with statutory declarations from neighbours and visitors stating the amount of noise.
“It’s going to be one expensive exercise for the landlord of that unit: our strata by-laws state no timber flooring is allowed.”
Let’s hope the CTTT adjudicator doesn’t decide to exercise his or her infinite wisdom and immense intellectual powers on this one and just go by the facts. The by-law says no timber floors so the floor needs to be fully carpeted or ripped up and replaced with something better insulated. End of story (although how you insulate a timber floor against falling pool balls is beyond me). Also, you more than likely have some comeback via by-laws that prevent residents disturbing the ‘peaceful enjoyment’ of their neighbours. Contact Fair Trading on 133220 or download a complaint form from HERE.
And could somebody please require rental agents to take even a basic course in strata management before they are allowed anywhere near apartment blocks?
The useless and plain wrong advice given by people who are, after all, tenants’ and landlords’ first phone call in a crisis is almost criminal. There’s a responsibility that comes with taking your slice of the rental pie.
You can read the whole story HERE and have your say on the flatchat.com.au/forum. There’s also a whole section on timber floors on the Flat Chat website HERE.