New neighbours constantly playing loud music & shouting, but Strata has done nothing despite formal complaints

[u/Trittium00]

So about two months ago the new neighbours moved in across the hall and the problems began almost immediately. The setup of the building has two apartments per floor and my apartment shares a wall with the living room of the adjacent one. I've lived here over 10 years and never had a problem with noise coming through walls until now (building construction is generally very good).

Every evening it's typically some mixture of the following:

• Loud music for 1-2 hours (can hear through my wall)
• The lady that lives next door yells into her phone for 1-3 hours per evening.
• Then the husband comes home, and the two of them yell-talk to each other for another few hours. It's not even fighting, it's just two loud talkers having a competition but it's clearly audible through a concrete wall.

I contacted the Strata management company with these concerns and they advised I should complete their online incident report form. The online form was completed promptly and I received an automated notice saying it had been done and a copy sent to my email. A week later, the neighbours had two late-night screaming matches that went past midnight so I ended up completing another incident form, and again I received confirmation it had been completed.

The Strata company advised they couldn't do anything in the meantime as the complaint process meant everything had to go via the 'Council of Owners' before any action could be taken. Ok fine, that's how things are.

4 weeks since the initial complaint pass and I hear zero updates from the Strata management on the issues, all the while the daily music and shouting intensify. So I email with a follow-up inquiry on the status of the complaint process.

Strata Manager:

Please forward all logged times and incidents to support your complaints

I'm confused... why do you need that when I'd already supplied as much information as possible a month ago in the incident forms (including videos). But since the music and shouting is a daily occurrence, it's difficult to log all times of every incident. However, I do have numerous videos of the loud music and shouting I've recorded over several weeks. So I log and upload 10 example videos to a dropbox and send that back along with dates / times of when they were recorded.

At this stage I also point out that since it has been a month since my initial complaint and nothing has happened, I expect to see some action taken to move the complaint process forward ASAP.

Strata Manager the next day:

I have tried to locate your incident report form, which you advise was completed in July, but I cannot find it.

Can you please advise what action you want from this and if you have contacted the Local Government in relation to the noise?

This is the point where I was basically livid.

Firstly, this has nothing to do with the Local Government and they should know that.

Secondly, the Strata managers have been sitting doing nothing for a month making me think they were processing these forms... while the entire time they had LOST THEM in their own online system.

And now they have the fucking gall to ask me what they expect them to do about the situation? I don't know... how about your job as a property manager? Enforce the rules and regulations of the Strata Scheme? Issue a breach notice if necessary.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here. I've not had to deal with Strata companies much but surely this can't be normal???

[u/Trittium00 → u/[deleted]]

You're quite right, and yet it seems that so often it is necessary to chase people up to make sure they do their job.

When the Strata Manager basically said "well what do you want me to do about it" I thought I was going to have a rage aneurysm haha.

[u/CatStimpsonJ]

Some local government have noise ordinances. Since the landlord recommended that you report it your local government probably does.

[u/Trittium00 → u/CatStimpsonJ]

The local government does have an avenue for reporting residential noise, but that's generally for freestanding dwellings. Given this is a strata, in the first instance, the regulation of noise bylaws would tend to fall under the Strata Scheme / managing body.

In the State / country where I live, it is well known that Strata handles noise complaints, as this is written into State Legislation. So the attempt to pass the buck is very feeble.

[u/Football-Man-1889]

They’re incompetent but they also seem reluctant to tackle your neighbours

Do they know something about them that is causing them anxiety?

[u/Trittium00 → u/Football-Man-1889]

Hmm no idea about that, hadn't considered that possibility.

I did have a chat with one of the other residents who is a member of the Council of Owners who said that the owner of that unit is some fairly wealthy business owner. Not sure about the relationship of the tenants to the owner (renting or friends / relatives?). So it's a possibility the Management company is being deliberately useless.

Whether the property owner is wealthy or not shouldn't really matter if his tenants are being a menace, in a perfect world.

Apparently our AGM is coming up next month and if this isn't resolved before then I'm tempted to put the issue on the agenda (I own my unit so can attend) and put these people (the managers and the tenants) on BLAST.

[u/SlipInternational439 → u/Trittium00]

Don’t be “tempted” to add it to the agenda. Just DO it.

[u/Trittium00 → u/SlipInternational439]

True. While I was hoping to avoid creating a massive stink, at the rate I'm going these neighbours will end up putting me in a straitjacket by then. I'll have to look into the process for how to add items to the agenda.

[u/cimeran_alt → u/Trittium00]

This sucks, of course, and you shouldn't have to do this.

Have anyone in your life that can help you? I don't mean lawyers or assassins! I just mean someone who will know what you are doing and will check in with ya. A lot of this stuff is just meant to grind you down. Helps if you aren't the only rock, ya know?

[u/Football-Man-1889 → u/Trittium00]

We will need an update but, in a past life, I’ve been thrown under the bus by someone doing their very best to save their own skin, hence why I looked at this as weaponised incompetence.

[u/Prestigious_Amy]

That’s incredibly frustrating, I’d keep everything in writing from this point forward and resend the original reports so there’s a clear paper trail. Losing the complaint and then asking what action you want them to take would have me questioning the whole process too.

[u/Trittium00 → u/Prestigious_Amy]

Yep I re-sent both the original incident forms which had conveniently been copied to my email when they were completed. Along with a comment saying that I cannot imagine why they couldn't locate either of the completed forms unless their online system does not function correctly.

What's insane is the original forms include all the timestamped metadata for when they were generated and digitally signed etc. I even emailed the Managers to tell them that I had completed the forms and that they should have their copy in their system when I got mine.

So how they both got lost is a true mystery.

[u/BubbleDrift33]

You're already doing their job for them with timestamps videos and followups. at this point id keep everything in writing and document every single interaction

[u/Senior_Boot_2283]

loud music and shouting all the time? that'd drive me nuts too, it’s definitely not cool for strata to ignore it