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I live in NSW in a strata scheme. Some of the common property, front doors make a lot of noise and vibrations. Im afraid I believe there’s strong evidence I’ve lost some of my hearing, and a sore back from the chronic door slams.
If it’s proven that I’ve truly suffered an injury or some medical damage, from this “common property” situation, do I sue the (OC) for compensation and paying my medical bills. And how do they pay me if I’m successful in legal action. Do they raise a levy to pay the medical bills or Public liability insurance do they pay it from? Much like if you swim in the swimming pool(common property) and the water is contaminated, do you sue the (OC) or the strata, as I,m confused who I am trying to sue or seek damages from!
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The Owners Corporation is the entity that can be sued and is responsible for maintaining the common property in a safe condition. I am not sure what you mean by ‘the strata’. Colloquially, that is the owners corporation. The owners corporation is the ‘club’ all owners become a member of, whether they like it or not, when they buy a unit.
Now, it might get more complicated in that the OC in turn might have a claim against some other entity if, perhaps, the executive of the owners corporation could show that they had directed the managing agent to arrange the repair of the doors and provided the funding but it was not done. I think that would be a problem for the executive committee to sort out with the managing agent and not your problem.
The OC may be covered by insurance in some circumstances.
How do you get a bad back from a door slamming?
Just to be clear, if you are seriously trying to prove that common property doors have caused back problems and hearing issues for you, you will be taking on the strata insurers and their teams of lawyers, not your neighbours.
However, this question has a whiff of p*ss-take, which I suspect would be any insurer’s response too.
Actually, I invite my fellow Stratagurus (and all you other Flatchatters) to click on Matt’s name to get to his profile and then read all the topics he has started.
A dog that kills a cat, dust coming into his flat, a bug picked up in his pool and always the question is, “who can I sue?”
Am I the only one who smells a rat?
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
It is unfair to consider someone’s past history in a present legal question. An Example: you cannot consider a woman’s past sexual history on an allegation of rape. Since we share experiences, I acquired Pseudomonas aeruginosa from swimming in the body corporate pool. I notified our body corporate high profile insurer, who assigned a lawyer to investigate. The lawyer did not require a statement of facts from me or my witnesses, nor the sworn pics of the condition, nor the medical report. He simply stated if I was successful, I would not meet the minimum compensation amount so the matter was over. I reported this to the Insurance Commission who required the insurer to look into the matter. They did. The insurer informed the commission that an in-house investigation was had and statements taken, and that they, the insurer, were not liable. I informed the commission that the investigation had no integrity if the victim and the victim’s evidence was not considered (because it was not asked for), but the commission then said although they look into Strata insurance matters, they considered this a personal liability issue and that is beyond the scope of their jurisdiction. The pool was maintained by a friend of the executive who was licensed, but not as competent as I would like because he did this job on the side from his regular job. Unfortunately, our executive was not indemnified. We have corrected this.
@sealion said:
It is unfair to consider someone’s past history in a present legal question.First of all, this is not a legal matter – this is a forum in which people give up their valuable free time to help others who genuinely need advice. Forgive me if I get irritated with people who think they are clever by taking advantage of others’ common decency by posting under a series of fake IDs with different IP addresses.
So are you saying we are wrong to question Matt’s authenticity based on his other posts, (not to mention the fact that his email address is a corruption of the phrase “name a price”)?
But you obviously have great empathy, since you and Matt seem to have suffered the same medical condition due to insufficiently chlorinated swimming pool water.
A year or so ago, I banned someone from this forum for posting nonsense then supporting himself with posts from a series of other made-up identities. When I pulled him up, he ran off to another inferior website to complain about me.
I don’t mind a bit of fun here and there, but anyone who thinks this forum is there purely for their enjoyment, to make themselves feel clever at everyone else’s expense can expect to get short shrift.
Maybe Matt’s predicament of slamming door induced back problems and deafness is real and you both suffered in an epidemic of waterborne infections in strata swimming pools and both wanted to know who you could sue.
If that’s the case, then we need to go public on this so everyone in strata can be warned.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
The standard modern fire safety closure on external apartment doors has a quick-slow mechanism that is usually enough to prevent it slamming – if it’s adjusted properly.
We used to have fire safety guys come round and adjust ours to “maximum slam” and we would adjust them back – this went on until we sacked them.
If the door closing mechanisms are out of date then they are probably unsafe and need to be replaced. If they are modern ones they need to be adjusted.
One general comment – if we could all just move back from the American model of “who can I sue?” to the traditional Australian model of “how can we fix this?” then everybody would be a lot happier.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
I agree with Jimmy on this one. Going down the legal avenue wont help anyone including yourself. It will only benefit the solicitors. Sometimes you have to just move on with life and enjoy it. There are way too many legal battles in the strata world. A lot of problems can be resolved without the need to sue, unfortunately we are going down the American model where we like to always blame someone else and seek retribution whether its worth it or not.
Have you spoken to the strata about this? I only ask because it appears through your posts you first talk about suing the strata and in your second post you are going to talk to the OC?
Would not raising this issue at an AGM be better then trying to sue first?
Lawyers are only going to ask who have you contacted in the strata about this and what have they done?
I have been through a complaint process with a noisy neighbour and the fact that I had spoken to the offending party/parties on multiple occasions and then went to the Strata and then to the Council gave more weight to my claim when the police contacted me about my concerns.
Going the “I will sue first and then talk to people after” route will only cause the OC to be defensive and not at all helpful if you have other issues.
I agree you must go through the hard yards before considering any legal action. This is almost always a requirement in any process of complaint, legal or otherwise. My view is that the principle of fairness is not just a legal one. We all have experienced problems with communication within our individual owners corporation. We all get frustrated at the rate problems are resolved, if they are resolved at all. We know that there can be many presumptions afoot when attempting to negotiate with the OC. I am not the moderator on this forum. I do not know the history of Matt nor do I know Matt. I only know, as a healthcare professional, the details that Matt provides as to his condition are real. Additionally, not everyone has great negotiation skills and they look to this forum for a variety of reasons. I find that the NSW NCAT service of mediation is a good one. Unfortunately, the opposing parties do not have to partake in that service. Again, as Missy has stated, if and when this happens, this will give more weight to your claim.
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