Floating timber flooring and unsympathetic Owner and tenants

Hi All,

The noise generated by the timber floor is only a part of the problem. The tenants have a disturbing habit of slamming external and internal doors and windows as well. To add to this recently the kitchen taps have started to make a loud squeak and the tenant tikes to rinse each item turning the taps on and off repeatedly for 30 min at a time around meal times. Last night the combined noises only stopped at 2am.. Up again at 5am

My haven has become a nightmare…. ;-(

Oh well I guess one problem at a time

Can I get strata to talk to the owner or would this be a pointless exercise?

Cheers

andyj

Hi Jimmy and Flat chatters

The owner of the Lot upstairs has not appealed to date and the appeal period of 3 weeks has passed. They have however sent me an email saying that they don’t believe that their floor is at fault and that they will not be doing anything to rectify the problem. They kindly asked me to suggest a reasonable way to address the “root problem”.

The adjudicators orders were pretty clear in that they said by-law 14 was clearly breached and that the underlay used was insufficient to prevent the transmission of noise from the floor space. The adjudicator as expected did not specify carpeted flooring or otherwise

Would it be unreasonable of me to suggest a solution such as “Please call Precision Flooring and ask for a quote on the 15mm Regupol Underlay” or would I likely be painting myself into a corner here. I am tempted to ask for quality carpet and underlay, but fear I may be pushing my luck here

Pls advise

Thanks scotlandx,

Your advice is very, very much appreciated and makes perfect sense. I will get some advice as suggested. All I want is the owner above to return the acoustic characteristics of his lot to that I was experiencing before the wooden nightmare was installed. I have been putting up with constant booming and banging noises till 2am since Feb last year and I am getting a bit desperate for a good nights sleep. I am a bit worried that the owner upstairs will do a half a***ed job and say its resolved or use his current strategy of asking the tenants to tippy toe for a few months till, in his mind it has blown over. It would be nice if he could just see that the installer gave him bad advice and he got a dud install and just fix it once and for all. Had the roles been reversed this is exactly what I would have done.

Again thanks for what is sensible advice. I was going to ask my strata lawyer but he charges like lawyers do for everything, including asking how things are going

Cheers

andyj

Hi scotlandx, excathedra,

Thanks for the posts. I am yet to get the paperwork from the CTTT. I am a little peeved with the CTTT as I am trying to plan a holiday away from the noise pollution at home and have been ringing them every Monday them since the 21day appeal point passed. Since the orders were posted on 14 Jan (Orders issued on 11 Jan, I received by Mail on 15 Jan) that the appeal period would have lapsed on 4 Feb so a 8 Feb submission would be out of time. The Owners rep should have got the orders on the same day. The Owner himself emailed me on 22 Jan asking for a compromise agreement, but I took scotlandx’s fine advice (among others) and didn’t reply. There have since been accusations that we are harassing the tenants on racial grounds (yes in writing) even though the only time I have spoke to them was last year asking them to stop building IKEA furniture on the shiny new timber floor at 11.30pm on a week night. Even the owner indicated that I has spoken to them once and “this harassment shall stop”. Really guys this should saga would get better ratings that most prime time TV shows.

I have called Precision Flooring and spoken to one of the acoustical representative’s. He suggested that the best flooring is carpet with quality underlay. He said Regupol was one of the best underlays for timber floors. He suggested that I get the owner to give them a call. to discuss. I have already some months ago put the owner onto Regupol as a good underlay. I wont repeat the return language in this fine forum.

My strata solicitor is not local to the city so costs will be incurred with travel. I wish the owner had taken my offer to go halves in the remedy costs now.

If a directions hearing isn’t to address the substance of the matter, does that mean that his “appeal” unlikely to overturn the adjudicators orders and simply outline remedy process or am I dreaming here. (I think I am dreaming here)

I am still keeping noise logs, and have the original stat decs from neighbors and visitors but I get the feeling this will drag on for some time.

Any advice on preparing for the face to face at the tribunal would be appreciated. I am gathering witnesses to come as well.

Cheers all. Hope this goes the way of the good guys

scotlandx, Jimmy T and Whale

Thanks for your valuable advice on the forum. I am preparing my case for the upcoming appeal. I was wondering if you could provide “academic” comment on the following.

I note that an “automatic right of appeal to the Tribunal exists against any order of an Adjudicator made under ss 138-162” which means that an appeal can be lodged because of an error of law or disagreement with any aspect of an Adjudicators decision.

I note the appeal notice should set out the grounds or reasons for disagreement. The general rule (the prima facie principle that judgments that are presumed to be correct) appears that a judgment of an Adjudicator is presumed to be correct. 

Therefore the grounds for appeal should clearly set out the errors or issues which the appellant wishes to argue. A grounds for appeal or a combination of grounds for appeal would therefore need to establish that the Adjudicators orders are plainly wrong, harmful, prejudicial or unreasonable if allowed to stand unrevoked or unamended.

In preparing arguments for disallowing admission of evidence of the appellant

I understand that the tribunal can conduct the hearing in the following manners

As an “appeal in the classic sense” where the tribunal is limited to examining errors of law or finding of facts by the Adjudicator (arguments no additional material submitted)

An appeal by way of rehearing based on the evidence provided to the Adjudicator examining whether the adjudicator fell into legal, factual or discretionary error, or

An appeal by way of rehearing based on the evidence provided to the Adjudicator, supplemented by such further evidence as the appellate tribunal admits, where the further evidence includes:

1) evidence in relation to fresh matters that occurred after the decision of the Adjudicator

2) in relation to matters that occurred prior to the decision of the Adjudicator where the evidence satisfies:

        Pre trial unavailability even with the exercise of reasonable diligence:

        It must be appropriately credible and:

        If it was adducted before the Adjudicator an opposite verdict would

        have been likely.

I am likely to incur frightening costs in the pursuit of this matter, therefore an attempt at recovering costs will be sought if possible.

What does it mean where the applicants appeal is frivolous, vexatious , misconceived or lacking in substance. Can someone provide some examples that I may use as “academic food” in getting my arguments together

The more I can prepare before engaging the legal folk the more I can save in costs:

All and any comment will read with gratitude.

Kind Regards.