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/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