Owner making all the wrong noises

QUESTION: My neighbour plays loud music late at night and when I complained he said I’m a tenant, he’s an owner so that’s tough on me.  I asked the secretary of the Executive Committee and he said they can’t do anything unless the landlord makes a complaint.  I asked the rental agent and he said [...]

Can we handle the truth about strata?

Executive committees are a bunch of self-serving control freaks who wouldn’t know strata law from the soccer offside rule and just want to interfere in other people’s lives … or so one popular view would have it. But how much truth, if any, is there in that common but caustic assessment of people who voluntarily [...]

Locking out my creepy landlord

QUESTION:  I’m a young single female, and my landlord creeps me out.  He ogles me a lot and I’ve been getting a feeling that he’s been in my flat while I’ve been at work. Last week I came home to find him in the unit. OK, I have to say he was fixing a light [...]

Wrinklies too much to bear

QUESTION: A couple on the far side of 70 renting on our ground level don’t use the blinds in their common-property-facing kitchen at all … ever … night or day. Three households can clearly see in without trying and six families can’t miss them as they pass by. We see them both in PJs, nighties [...]

Renovation rules there for a reason

Reading some of the mail we get here, you’d think all by-laws are stupid, all Executive Committee members are interfering busybodies, and all owners who want to do their own things are innocent victims of oppressive “Nanny State” rules. The truth can be a bit different… QUESTION: I need to re-do my bathroom and kitchen [...]

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Lawyer bashing a free kick for cowboys

Yay!  Let’s go lawyer bashing. Minister for Fair Trading Anthony Roberts says he plans to curb strata lawyers who get rich by pursuing defect claims against developers. They will have to “find another ambulance to chase,” Mr Roberts told the Australian Financial Review, commenting on developers’ claims that the reason apartment block development had slowed [...]

Steamed up over grubby rug

QUESTION: We recently moved into a rental property and it was only after we had signed  that we realised that carpet hadn’t been properly cleaned.  We had it professionally cleaned before we moved our stuff in and we asked the agent to pay for it as the previous tenant should have had it cleaned. But [...]

Who do I pursue for unit repairs?

QUESTION: I have repairs needed on my townhouse but real estate keep saying strata need to do it and they can’t make them. One is a sliding door that doesn’t shut fully. Rain gets through and is causing constant mould growth even the gap being plugged as best as possible with towels. Another problem is [...]

Take care when the caretaker takes over

Deep in the heart of strata living there’s a grubby little secret … a stain on the whole business that politicians ignore and Fair Trading and the CTTT won’t or can’t do anything about. QUESTION: I own a unit in a very large block where the caretaker has a 25-year contract. The previous executive looked [...]

Park illegally … lose your home

You would think, of all the  issues that plague strata dwellers,  parking would be the easiest to resolve.  After all, a spot is allocated to you (or not) and you are allowed to park in it (or not). If only … “We have new tenants in our complex who have two or three cars parked [...]