Problem "owner" in strata complex

Hi guys,

Starting this thread to vent a bit and may be to get some insight. I didn't really get what I was after I posted about this same issue. However hoping for some empathy and thoughts on what can be done in this situation.

We live in a complex of 5 villas. We are number 3. Number one has tenants. The owner is a lady who doesn't live to far away with her husband. They have had issues in the past with us using the visitor car park occasionally. But pretty much everyone uses it especially tenant for number 2 and number 5 who are the recent new owners. Number 2, 4, 5 don't care. In fact number 5 park in the common area in front of their villa as it doesn't get in anyone's way and we don't care.

Would be 4 years for us here late Feb 2014. Initially we didn't know how strata worked but eventually got to know the other two owners (4 and 5). Naively believed in fraudulent letters received without any date or signature and strata letter head. Turns out tenant for number 2 and ex-owner for number 5 received those too. And owner for number 4 and 5 told us that this guy has had major issues with harassing them and other previous owners. We all confirmed with strata that these were not sent by strata when we realised something wasn't right. He would put notes on our car as well. By the way this man used to do the complex clean by the way and as a mutual agreement between villas 3, 4, 5 and dissatisfaction with the quality of works two years we changed the gardening guys. Took us a while to get the right one now though.

Last December on our birthday, we were home and he banged on our door and asked where is my sis (who owns the villa) and said move the car (this is after he was removed from the complex cleaning late 2011). So in response I kept asking him "WHY is he banging on the door like that?", to which he took great offence and said "Excuse me?" - Like we can't ask him why he is harassing us?

Took us a while but we got around to it, mid this year we told strata that we had already spoken to the police about this man's behaviour and that our peace and quiet had been impacted; And that his behaviour to approach us aggressively had been very distressing for us. As well as the letters that were never sent by strata are fraudulent (as confirmed by strata). Strata manager thought that it wasn't really his job to communicate this, but wrote a letter telling him to not send these letters as they were fraudulent. Clearly he was going to call asking for proof and when he did call, the strata manager told him that we had already been talking to the police and will pursue courts if he did not back off.

Ever since he hasn't approached us, however hired a property manager to come and take a photo of our car. We have been fed up as everyone else also parks and he seems to be pinning it on us. We feel that he is threatened of empowered young women. So after that we wanted peace so we avoided parking there while others continued.

We also noted that there is more than usual leaves and rubbish in front of our villa as we just cleaned last week when the gardening guy didn't show up and suspect that he happened to clean in front of his villa and blow a lot of it infront of ours. We have removed this again last night btw.

The other day we had a strata meeting and his wife said in future they will go to tribunal directly as their tenants get inconvenienced by anyone parking in that spot. I have barely ever seen their tenants in 4 years and I don't think they care from what I have heard from tenant at number 2. So in response we told them that we had already spoken the the police. He said they are all allegations and he banged on our door in 2006 (when we didn't even live here). He was literally yelling at us at the strata meeting and although we are strong we still took our brother with us. He said we had no proof that he banged on our door. What other proof do we need really than being present? The wife was quite interested to know about the cleaning....and we said well infront of our villa needed a clean and we needed the gardener to come more frequently to which he said that we could clean ourselves. Not that we need to give any explanations, we pay for strata for a reason AND we work 12-13 hour days (corporate work + portfolio building) and are busy people.

During this conversation he tried to get the new owner off villa 5 on his side...and villa 4 never says anything and is very timid but later said to us that he knew how this man was. He had done the same to the ex-owners at number 5 (even peaked in their windows/banged the door) and had backed off after he was threatened with police action. While we've heard that the ex-ex-owners of number 5 had sold out because he harassed them for having cut a tree in front of their villa...

I would want to deal with this legally. If we don't even occasionally use that spot, then similarly we'd like villa 5 new owners to not be parking in front of their villa as that is not a parking spot (and this man had made previous owners life hell for that same reason). I want to know how common it is for owners to visit their tenanted strata properties that they are (no longer) self managing? Although it's good to have someone who comes and waters the plants infront of their villa, there is an element of sticky beaking and making our life difficult. We just want to live in peace but we are inclined to sort him out in a legal manner. He is a misogynist for sure and sometimes I feel there is a race issue too...

Insights welcomed, no battering please.

Thanks for reading.

MsAli
 
Maybe write to him asking him to stop any further aggressive behaviour?

After reading the story, am I right in saying that's the main issue?
 
Thanks thatbum. Yeh pretty much. They want some sort of power OVER others living in the complex. Him and his wife want to get it "their" way and somehow fiddle with what others do. We live in our own home so don't see why the need to control. We aren't their tenants and they don't own the common area.

Thinking of this, I wonder if we started going to our strata properties every second day to watch tenants we would go insane. Not only that, the behaviour will be considered tresspassing as those are investment properties. Here they have done it for many years hence taken as a "norm" that he visits the complex.

Will write to our property manager to find out what is the norm and if they have had owners go to the complex.

Especially since they have hired a property manager locally, we'd be writing to their property manager to stop this dropping by (based on what our property manager says about what's normal).

Jim - thanks for the suggestion.........

Can I add, these guys have two investment properties. I think they act all as if they are "landlords". We've never told them what we have.
 
His type is all about asserting power over others. Reacting to his actions just gives him satisfaction and reinforces his perception of power. You need to disempower him. If he comes around, say "go away im not interested in speaking with you" and close the door. If he goes off at you at strata, say "excuse me, I was not talking to you" and then talk with other owners/,manager etc

If he knows he cant rattle and fluster you, he loses any power he might have.

If he continues to harrass you, then get Henry to write him a stern letter. If anything else happens, approach the police for further advice.
 
Best suggestion I can offer is to immediately stop parking in the visitor car park.

Living in a strata complex, everyone is bound by the by-laws, which will clearly state that visitor car parks are for visitors, not residents.

Maybe "everyone else" does it, but that does not make it right.

Misuse of visitor car parks is a major source of complaint in complexes everywhere.
Marg
 
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His type is all about asserting power over others. Reacting to his actions just gives him satisfaction and reinforces his perception of power. You need to disempower him. If he comes around, say "go away im not interested in speaking with you" and close the door. If he goes off at you at strata, say "excuse me, I was not talking to you" and then talk with other owners/,manager etc

If he knows he cant rattle and fluster you, he loses any power he might have.

If he continues to harrass you, then get Henry to write him a stern letter. If anything else happens, approach the police for further advice.

Thanks Dave. Your advice is helpful as always :)

Good idea we will do that. I did drop Henry a line about this. Will get him to write a letter if things go even more worse..

Btw, we couldn't find a cheap cleaner, so went and cleaned the house earlier. Just took over an hour :)
 
Best suggestion I can offer is to immediately stop parking in the visitor car park.

Living in a strata complex, everyone is bound by the by-laws, which will clearly state that visitor car parks are for visitors, not residents.

Maybe "everyone else" does it, but that does not make it right.

Misuse of visitor car parks is a major source of complaint in complexes everywhere.
Marg

Marg, we have stopped. But shouldn't we ask others to stop parking in the common area? Clearly, we don't want to pick a fight with owner of number 5, but we feel they should also not be parking there.

In the past this man had a go at the previous owners for parking in the common area, but he likes people to be on his side and hence did not raise this issue.

We won't let him win by bullying us and coercing us. At some stage he will need to stop visiting here. The police threat worked so far from having us not approach us.
 
Also, is he really the OWNER if only his wife happens to own it as per RP Data and Price Finder?

Haha not strictly in a legal property law sense, so you could always threaten to report him for trespassing after you tell him you know he doesn't own it.
 
Haha not strictly in a legal property law sense, so you could always threaten to report him for trespassing after you tell him you know he doesn't own it.

Yeh true that. Though when we asked the police they said they couldn't stop him or anyone else for that matter. Anyone can walk into the common property and loiter around.....which sounded rather bizarre.

He comes to water the side gardens infront of their villa which are the responsibility of the owner/resident so effectively I expect the tenants to be attending to those. I have seen this as a potential public liability risk...and anyway he shouldn't bet here anyway if looked at from a legal property law sense as you say.
 
Best suggestion I can offer is to immediately stop parking in the visitor car park.

Living in a strata complex, everyone is bound by the by-laws, which will clearly state that visitor car parks are for visitors, not residents.

Maybe "everyone else" does it, but that does not make it right.

Misuse of visitor car parks is a major source of complaint in complexes everywhere.
Marg

Was thinking the same thing.
 
His tenants would have a strong case for complaining that they are not being allowed "quiet enjoyment" if the landlord is always there watering the garden.

I would hate that if I was a tenant. Perhaps you can get his tenant on side with this, but I doubt it.

Do you know anyone who can wrote a legal letter telling him to stop harassing you? And if you visit the local police station and make a complaint, you might find a willing cop who could give him a call or visit and suggest he stop harassing you.
 
His tenants would have a strong case for complaining that they are not being allowed "quiet enjoyment" if the landlord is always there watering the garden.

I would hate that if I was a tenant. Perhaps you can get his tenant on side with this, but I doubt it.

Do you know anyone who can wrote a legal letter telling him to stop harassing you? And if you visit the local police station and make a complaint, you might find a willing cop who could give him a call or visit and suggest he stop harassing you.

Hi wylie, the property had been self managed for years till we threatened police action for approaching us and then a property manager was hired to do that job. If he doesn't own the property legally, not sure if he is allowed to be there watering the gardens anyway. If anything it's our peace and quiet that has been bothered.

Yeh our solicitor (as pointed by Dave - we share a kick *** soli :D) can do that for us. But we haven't yet decided to do that till we review the strata laws (monalisa got a book from work). Don't think there is a case to ask the police at this stage, as he has backed off ever since we told strata we had already done our enquires with the police... It's their assumed monopoly of the parking spot as it's close to their villa. Note, there are two other people in the complex who regularly park there and no issues raised.

Will definitely be noting when he comes to blow the leaves in between the garden people visits, given over the last two weeks we have found a lot of rubbish in front of our home. I can't believe we have more trees near us and more wind too :)
 
get an avo against him for 200m or so that means he wont be able to go in the complex and if he does the police can escort him out
 
get an avo against him for 200m or so that means he wont be able to go in the complex and if he does the police can escort him out

BMan, do we still have grounds? He hasn't been aggressive lately other than at the strata meeting.
 
If others are parking there and he is the only one who is raising it as an issue, then you "should" be able to park there too if it suits you. I think you need to raise the issue of the parking at a meeting, and have everybody fall into line with either agreeing that parking there suits you all or is forbidden to all.

If others parking where they should not doesn't bother you, and it doesn't cause problems, then I'd let it be.

What is his problem anyway. Parking there doesn't affect him surely. He doesn't own the place, he doesn't live there. He's just hanging about like a bad smell, making trouble.

After buying a unit when I was about 20 and having trouble with one of the owners, I swore off them... never again do I want to have to deal with owners who get a kick out of pushing others about, or having to run my life (or my investment) to the tune of someone who may or may not be a bit unhinged.
 
Yep, definitely a breach of their lease re: quiet enjoyment. Contact their PM and mention it to them to express a concern that they may be breaching the lease if they don't seek the tenant's approval by giving 24 hours notice (max 4 times per year) each time they come to water the garden etc.

Are they using a tap on common property or the tenant's water service - you might be paying for their garden habits - put a stop to it.
 
If others are parking there and he is the only one who is raising it as an issue, then you "should" be able to park there too if it suits you. I think you need to raise the issue of the parking at a meeting, and have everybody fall into line with either agreeing that parking there suits you all or is forbidden to all.

wylie, yeh I know :(. We've decided to observe the parking as we think even the tenants of that villa themselves park there ever now and again. It's a power trip and a desire to feel in control.

What is his problem anyway. Parking there doesn't affect him surely. He doesn't own the place, he doesn't live there. He's just hanging about like a bad smell, making trouble.

:) Yeh I'd like to also know what the problem is. Especially as he is not even on the title of the property.

Yep, definitely a breach of their lease re: quiet enjoyment. Contact their PM and mention it to them to express a concern that they may be breaching the lease if they don't seek the tenant's approval by giving 24 hours notice (max 4 times per year) each time they come to water the garden etc.

Are they using a tap on common property or the tenant's water service - you might be paying for their garden habits - put a stop to it.

Scott, the property manager engagement is recent. They hired a PM so the PM can take photos etc and it doesn't come across as him approaching us. Funnily, their PM only took our car's photo - not tenant at 2 or owners at 5. The PM was hired after we told strata of our intention to take the matters further if we were approached again. Prior to that, the property was privately managed so I don't think their tenants mind if he comes every few days.

Good point, should look at the water bills for strata. I do know however, last year, he started using the tap outside tenant number 2 who is a single person living there. The landlord was going to charge her for all the water use and then she realised what had been happening and he had to stop.

Thanks guys for the mostly helpful posts.
 
Sounds like he has waaay too much time on his hands. Doesn't he have anything better to do with his time?!

I know someone who spends a reasonable amt of time at their investment property (group of strata units) but he's much more amenable and he's 1) retired and 2) glad to have an excuse to get out of his own home, on occasion.
 
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