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My first post here. At around 7pm last night, an otherwise very quiet Sunday night, a resident of our old block of 30 units, who is also a passenger on the Executive Committee, started using a hammer drill to put something up on his balcony.
I wanted to check the rules before I took this up with him or the strata manager or the larger Executive Committee and was amazed to find our local council would allow this from 8am until 8pm on a Sunday. Possibly worse, our by-laws (and other ‘model by-laws’ I found on the net) DO have the paragraph about noise and peaceful enjoyment etc. but this doesn’t mention, specifically, building noise or ‘home handyman’ noise.
This seems to be somewhat anachronistic in a strata with so many people living in such close proximity to each other and most enjoying a quiet Sunday night.
Is there anything I might do if this EC member gets his power tool out again?
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I wouldn’t wait for it to happen again. The “peaceful enjoyment’ by-law covers everything from wooden floors to karaoke machines and powers tools as well. It might be worth contacting your EC to have it minuted that the use of power tools at evening and weekends is in contravention of this rule. If need be, suggest that they draft a new by-law for your next AGM that governs the hours when noisy work can be done. It tends to happen that all buildings reach an age when renovations are required – and once one person starts it spreads like a virus.
By the way, your council’s restrictions are laughable – you must be living in a builder’s paradise. But by-laws for your complex supersede local council by-laws in issues like this – it’s not “instead of” it’s “as well as”.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.
Suggestion 1: Call 13 32 20 and initiate proceedings at Fair Trading to have a notice to comply sent to the culprits.
2. Send a letter explaining to the Strata manager that the Council’s hours of operation have nothing to do with the peaceful enjoyment of your lot – the strata by-law is on top of basic council by-laws.
3. Write to your EC to ask them what they are going to do about a) noise at antisocial hours and b) a strata manager who doesn’t even understand the basics
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.
Is this just one instance of one person using a power tool on one weekend evening? Perhaps not going to do it again for another few years?
Just by chance I have a neighbour doing a small project of limited scope and duration. I had a joke with her the other day asking with a straight face if she knew about our rules banning power tools after 6PM. She fell for it briefly before I said I was only joking.
Was this a one off occurrence?
A hammer drill often does not generate much noise at the point of use, but the noise certainly amplifies when it travels through the building into other apartments. The user may not be aware of the problems he is causing.
PeterC and Boronia, good thoughts but I agree with the point JimmyT makes: once one or two people start acting inconsiderately and anti-socially, which was the case at Les Dansonne's place (cute name), “it spreads like a virus”.
Our strata is way too laissez-faire. Rubbish outside front doors in the common hall, shoe piles too, owners' junk all round the common gardens, parking hassles, noise… you see what I'm getting at? There's something to be said for 'zero tolerance'.
By the way, places here are fetching less than the average market value and rents are comparatively low (fine, if you're happy living in trailer-park-like circumstances).
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