Executive committee chairperson constantly harassing my tenants

Very keen to hear how this plays out.

I have a similar question, however the problem owner uses manipulation/playing victim/guilt tactics instead of bullying.

We had a mediation with Dept of Justice in Victoria, it was USELESS.
 
How did you go with this Gockie? We have someone like this around also!
What is with jerks and stratas? I remember at one heated managment meeting for my strata that one of the other owners politely suggested that the jerks should go buy a property that they didn't have to share with anyone else. There were only 4 owners in the whole complex. Three were nice, it was just one couple that were mean to everyone. Always one :(
 
Hi,
I've had a townhouse in the Canterbury Bankstown area of Sydney for about 4 years. My tenants have been in there for about 18 months. They are lovely people, and I always get paid my rent on time and they always pay the water usage charges on time, they let me know of any issues and are helpful and very cooperative. They have 2 young sons, approx 2 years and 4 years.

The husband fixes cars for money (I don't think it's his primary occupation). Therefore he has cars which are not necessarily registered sometimes either parked in the carspace or somewhere near the complex (he tells me he doesn't park them in the visitor spots).

Now, the executive committee chairperson lives next door. He is constantly watching what the neighbours are doing. While he can be nice, he can be overstepping his boundary. For example, for the person I bought the place from, I feel she sold up partly because of him. He helped erect a shelter in her back yard and apparently in return she was supposed to cut a tree (Palm type tree) down in her back courtyard (would drop large fronds which was a noise or possibly very unlikely OHS issue) but she didn't follow through. Therefore he had it in for her. When she sold I said have nothing to do with that problem.

So anyway, apparently this neighbour who heads the executive committee would always take pictures of my tenant and his kids while they are doing things. Photo evidence of the cars, the kids playing on the driveway (I said to my tenant they shouldn't play there).

But also, when my tenant had his mother over for two days, she parked her car in a visitor space for two days! He said she wasn't allowed to park there! I think it was a misunderstanding of the visit. Anyway, the tenant tells me the neighbour keeps sneakily taking photos of my tenant and his family (apparently even over the back fence), when he thinks they don't see him.

My neighbour is feeling harassed so he called me and told me everything the neighbour is doing. He asked if he could call the police. I said that's fine and he can give the police my details. Anyway, he comes back and apparently the police said to tell the landlord to sort this out.

Anyway, from these phone conversations, I told my tenant that I didn't want to approach the neighbour just yet.

1. About the cars being unregistered on or near the lot, I need to understand if it breaches any bylaws.

2. The neighbour taking pictures of my tenants? Can anybody give advice on the legalities of that?

It becomes tricky because this man is the executive committee chairperson. Anyway, I need to approach my strata manager, but thoughts and input please?

I'd hate to lose these tenants due to the behaviour of the neighbour (and the neighbour been there a long time, feels like he owns the complex and can bully people....)

Linda

This person sounds like a pain but you do need to make sure your tenant is squeaky clean. My thoughts ...

- I don't think your tenant can park an unregistered car (in bits?) that he's working on in his car space, it will probably breach the "appearance of lot" by law. Is this pedantic? Possibly. Depends how visible it is to others and how unsightly it is. Would you be annoyed if your neighbour had a car in various states of repair in the parking area that you share?
- Parking an unregistered car on the street could be illegal but that would be a council/police problem and nothing to do with the body corporate
- Some complexes have rules about the amount of time a person can park in the visitors spot, otherwise it's what is reasonable and a resident may need to advise the EC if a stay will be more than 24 hours, depends on the by-laws. I don't think it's unreasonable for a guest to stay a couple of days and park in the visitors spot but to save drama it's probably good manners to let the EC know in advance that she is a genuine visitor. In my view this is pedantic and a bit of overkill but to save aggravation it may be a helpful strategy.
- The tree issue is irrelevant to everyone except your neighbour. If he has an issue with the tree he should raise it with you, nothing to do with the tenant.
- Taking photos over the fence of your tenants is not legal, there was a recent case on this, something about an owner having an "illegal cat" (seriously!) and the neighbour took photos of the said illegal cat. Can't remember the details but I do remember that the photographer got in trouble.

Rather than going in all guns blazing why don't you just talk to the guy and let him know that you're keen to understand the issues and come to a resolution?

vtt
 
Its an old post.... I followed up with the tenants, they sent me a long list of all the things the neighbour was doing, shocking stuff including threatening to killing some animals (by strangulation) in the front of the kids. I could post the whole letter on this forum to live forever... its a shocker.
Anyway, I told my property manager and the Strata manager. They got in contact with the neighbour. Next time I spoke with my tenants they said the neighbour had just gone really quiet...

Anyway, we sorted out stuff like pool key, and my tenants are currently still there, always paying on time so thats fantastic.
 
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