BingLee

Hi everyone,

Just wondering what was the outcome of this incident as I myself am in a similar position though I have been fighting for almost 2 years, due to an incompetent strata manager and an ignorant strata committee. The unit above is a rental owned by overseas investors so they have been reluctant to provide any sort of communication. All dealings are handled by the property manager, who cannot make any decisions, nor is it in his interests to jeopardise the occupancy of the unit.

I was an acoustic engineer for 7 years during which time I have conducted countless floor assessments. How ironic that I am dealing with this for myself after I have changed careers. The science and technical side of things I am well-versed in, it’s the political side of things that do my head in. 

There’s a failure to recognise the difference between noise generated intentionally and noise being generated as a by-product. E.g. a person playing their music loudly and disturbing others fit the definition of creating a nuisance. If a person walks normally and the foot fall noise is heard in the adjacent residence due to insufficient noise insulation in the floor construction/covering, then the root of the problem is not the occupant’s behaviour but the floor covering itself.

I have gone through the mediation process with Fair Trading and even lodged a case with NCAT, and here is where things get even more difficult for the individual, and where I can use some further advice. There is no condition in the Strata Management Act that allows the individual to dispute a breach of by-law, only the strata committee can make that claim, but my strata committee refuse to acknowledge the breach of by-law and does nothing, so what can I do?

I ended up lodging a case to NCAT anyway for Article 153 of the Act “Owners, occupiers and other persons not to create nuisance”, even though I knew this didn’t address the issue of the floorboards directly, but it was the most relevant condition I can find.

First thing the tribunal member asked me was why is this not being handled by the strata committee. Secondly, the tribunal can only give rulings on the condition being disputed, that is Article 153, so even if they had ruled in my favour, all the tribunal can do was give notice to the occupants not to be a nuisance, which doesn’t solve the problem with the floorboards since I will be dealing with the exact same problem with every new subsequent tenant. The tribunal suggested I retract my appeal and relodge a new application that would address the actual problem. One option they suggested was to make a claim against the committee for failing to exercise their duties. They also suggested I seek legal advice, which I ended up doing. The lawyers indicated that an application can be made under the general dispute resolution powers of s232 of the Strata Management Act, but this was going to be a $10,000 exercise.

All I wanted to do was get an assessment of the flooring construction so that an objective decision can be made, yet the politics of the committee and tribunal have made this process unnecessarily difficult. I’m at my wit’s end as to what to do here. Sorry for the long winded message.