andyj

I totally agree with you on this Jimmy. I was a tenant for 12 years in various Sydney apartments, Most of the time I found the owners to be pleasant, however there was always the unspoken “understanding” that owners had all the rights and power in the complex and tenants were merely renters with few rights.

When owners would have late night parties, it was frowned upon for any of the tenants to raise the fact that they were disturbed, however if a tenant had a party the resident owners were all over them with threats of contacting the landlord and getting you evicted.

Now I am an owner I strongly believe that the tenants have the same rights and responsibilities as the owners in our building do. Some owners in our building feel that they have sway of how the building should be run regardless of what tenants and some owners may think. You are right Jimmy the battle is between decent people and dickheads.

@JimmyT said:

@Dragandeewhy said:

If the kids are small up to 12-13 years old of course there is going to be shouting and yelling. What would you expect? What for you is loud daily noise for somebody else is just daily activity.

So, does this mean we have to put up with any level of noise created by children?  If not, where do we draw the line?  

Is it unreasonable to expect parents who have chosen to enjoy the benefits of strata living to consider their neighbours and moderate the behaviour of their children?

Or don’t normal standards apply to kids and their parents?

I’m not taking sides on this – I’m just curious to know what others think.

Jimmy

Hi All,

I have read this thread with much reflection, as I and my 2 other neighbours in our wing of an 8 unit strata block have been living with daily disturbing noise from the other neighbour in our wing for 3 years now.

You all raise extremely good points in your posts.

Whilst some occasional noise from neighbours is to be expected, and tolerated, in any strata scheme. There is a difference between occasional neighbour noise and disturbing and intrusive noise.

The noise doesn’t necessary always need to be loud, as the dull thuds of people walking about/ running or slamming doors can be clearly audible and if frequent (say every few minutes) can become a nuisance. It is the “nature” of the disturbance that is often the issue.

I agree that the best initial approach is to discuss the noise with the offending party early and directly. Don’t be confronting or accusing, but do describe what you are hearing and the impact it is having on you. Fair Trading NSW recommends this as the initial approach. Hopefully your neighbour(s) are reasonable people and understand that the noise is having a big impact on you.

Sadly sometimes this approach doesn’t work, your neighbours ignore your requests and the next step is to either issue a notice to comply or attempt mediation via a community justice centre or Fair Trading.

Again sometimes this fails and your neighbour tells you to get stuffed at mediation or ignores the notice to comply and carries on their merry way disturbing you day and night.

Step 3 in our case was to go for adjudication. This as Jimmy mentioned can take months. If you get a successful outcome the other party is almost guaranteed to appeal and if they get legal representation (sometimes pro-bono) you then have massive legal costs to bear. During this process the neighbour will often continue to behave as they always have.

What I have learnt is that sometimes you cannot prevail when your neighbour is determined to live however they please and what could have been a happy relationship between neighbours deteriorates badly. We are now at the stage if we politely knock on their door and ask that they stop slamming doors and bashing furniture, they call the police and complain that we are harassing them.

Sometimes the only solution as I have see too many times in this forum is to simply sell up and hope that you don’t encounter another neighbour who thinks that they have the god given right to behave however they please

As they say it only takes one bad apple to spoil the barrel

Hi Flat-Chat community,
Our owners corporation is going through the same experience as dnighttime.
In brief:
Feb 2012- Timber floor installed above and new neighbors move in. Appalling noise results severely disrupting all residents in west wing of the strata complex.
May2012-July2013 protracted battle with owner to address breach of by-law 14. Favorable adjudication Jan 2013 which also recognizes some of the noise is not related to the floor and is the tenants themselves. Owner appeals, we go to a directions hearing May. July tribunal orders that owner complies with orders. Owner installs cheap carpet. Noise reduced from deafening to frequent and annoying.
Jan2014 Owner corp seeks orders against tenant to comply with by-law 1 and s117(1)(a) SSMA 1996. Adjudication July 2014 in favor of owners corp. Residents of west wing contact council and request noise abatement direction. Granted and in force until Oct 2014. Residents of west wing have politely approached tenant 4 times as a group in person over preceding 3 years asking nicely to please consider neighboring residents especially between 10pm and 7am. On last visit the tenant of the offending lot accuses the 3 other residents of the west wing of harassment and calls the police seeking AVO’s. Tenant speaks to police in English who advise us not to approach her again.
Owners corp seek orders from tribunal requesting penalties for breach of orders. Hearing held early Sept. Tenant suddenly cannot speak English and needs an interpreter. States that she could not understand request for mediation as an excuse for not attendance, didn’t understand the orders handed down by the tribunal and is bewildered as to why she is there. She also states that she does not have any knowledge of the laws or her rights.
Tribunal member asks that we talk with her about our issues. Strata Manager states that we have all had conversations with her, she can speak English and has 2 children at high school that do not need translators in class all day. Strata Manager also mentions police advice to all other residents not to approach her. Member repeats that it would be preferable for the parties to enter into discussions. We ask how if she cannot understand English and we are not permitted to contact her. Member adjourns case and states that the onus in on the owners corporation to establish that she is breaching the by laws despite us already having orders from the tribunal that she is in breach of the by laws. Member states that not all noise is excessive noise and we must understand this, despite the adjudicators orders in July stating that the tribunal is satisfied on the balance of probabilities that she is making excessive noise. All up hearing lasts 15min and we are dismissed. Outside tribunal the other party suddenly has learnt to speak English again.
Owner refuses to evict tenants despite all the evidence we have and the orders we have against the tenant. Strata Manager has never seen a noise issue get to this stage. He said that at least once a month his agency gets evictions from real estate agents in cases like this.
Legal advise from a friend is that they have had some very good legal advice to play the language and race card and that despite any orders we get they will continue to ignore them. The owner is a relative and lives overseas and supports the tenant fully. Is there any way we can put some heat on the owner as it appears that these people will fight to the death to “exercise their right to live as they please, even at 3am every day” and will not move for anyone. Next step penalties from council for breach of noise abatement direction. Stat decs from all affected residents 3 years of noise logs from 2 (one resident has given up due to the time this has taken and works night shift so can sleep during the day)

After 3 years of this I am almost stuffed.

Thoughts, advice, prayers requested

One nervous wreck andyj