Owner’s son destructive – owner/tenant from hell

Hi everyone,

I’m not sure if this is the right place to post my questions/concerns as I’m new here.

I purchased Unit 3 of an 8 Unit complex in late 2011. At the time, Unit 1 (2 floors beneath me) was empty however was soon purchased in December 2011 and the owner’s son moved in shortly thereafter. This is when the problems began.

During the 6 months that I lived there, I witnessed the following:

• Multiple parties during weeknights as well as weekends
• Loud music banging until 4am in the morning on both weeknights as well as weekends
• Multiple vehicles parked in common area blocking the garages of Units 2, 3, and 4 

At my first AGM in 2012, I raised this issue along with 2 other owners. We were told by owner of Unit 1 that he would tell his son to stop the parties so late and stop parking in front of our garages however the problem wasn’t just his son but his many friends who would often come over as well.

I moved out in May 2012 as this is an investment property and my tenants moved in during June 2012.

From June 2012 until now (ongoing), the problems have escalated exponentially and the following has occurred:

• Multiple parties continuing during weeknights and weekends
• Loud music continuously being played until 4am
• Bottles being thrown over Unit 1’s courtyard fence onto common footpath and public footpath
• Multiple vehicles continuously parked blocking the garages of Units 2, 3, and 4
• Graffiti on common property done by the owner’s son and his friends
• Urinating on other owners and visitors vehicles
• Releasing the air out of other owners’ and visitors’ vehicles
• Jumping from the balcony of Unit 1 across to the adjacent Unit 4
• Rubbish dumpling on common property

The Strata management has issued multiple letters of warning and notices of breaches of By-Laws 1, 2, 3, 8 and 9 to Unit 1 even threatening to evict the tenant however the owner (his father) simply wrote back stating that it is illegal for strata management to evict the tenant if the tenant’s father is the actual owner of the property.

The owners voted as a majority to take the owner of Unit 1 to the CTTT tribunal however in my personal opinion, all they can do is fine the owner who will just pay through his deep-set pockets. No matter how much the other owners stress to Unit 1 that his son’s actions are causing all of us grief and making us lose money (since our tenants are all threatening to end their leases), the father refuses to take our word and simply states “My boy went to Knox high school. He’s a private school trained good boy”.

I am so stressed out I don’t know what else we (the owners) can do now. Our goal is not to punish or take revenge, but rather we just want the problems to stop, or the son to move out. The son is already on the register of “do not rent out” for Real Estate agents so he is unable to find a place elsewhere unless his parents buy him another property. He is also unemployed, as are all of his friends.

I’m thinking of coordinating a meeting with all the parties involved (owners, strata, real estate agents) and go to the police with all of our collected evidence including AGM minutes so that next time an issue occurs, the police will have background context and take our matter more seriously.

Has anyone dealt with or resolved these sorts of issues? Would the Media be interested in this sort of problem?? I’m really at a complete loss of what to do. Our last resort is to sell but we’d be making a huge loss.