troublemaker neighbor - advise please

D

dajackal

Hi all,
Having an major issue with another tenant in the same building.

For context here’s the history:
- I lived in the unit for 2 years (PPOR)
- Trouble tenant from other unit in same building was being a royal nuisance during that whole time: Yelling in the middle of the night, loud music, verbal abuse, damage to parked vehicles, smoking pot, etc.
- One specific dispute got especially heated after he let the air out of my tires...I retaliated then he started giving death threats and became extremely hostile.
- Decided couldn’t take anymore so moved out late last year and then listed the property for sale
- Couldn’t fit a suitable buyer so had the property advertised for lease since last week
- Just this week, had a potential tenant lined up to sign the lease but then pulled out due to this colourful character playing loud music with the door open; need to follow up with my property manager to get further details as to what happened.
- I’ve spoken to both the Property Manager and the Strata Manager last year and they both refuse to do anything about it.

What should I do?
- I originally wanted to sell the unit to cut any emotional ties I had with the property, as it’s been an extremely traumatic experience. However, unable to secure a good price for the property, I decided to try to lease it out and relist for sale in 6/12 months time.
- As a property investor I’d prefer to keep the property as a rental. But if I can’t get anyone in there, or be able to keep long-term tenants, then I’m at a severe loss…
- So should I lodge a dispute with the CTTT? Seems like I need to go through mediation first with NSW Fair Trading…do I dispute it with the Property Manager or Strata Manager?

Thanks for any help you can provide.
 
Do you know other owners ?

Contact strata again, together is one thing that comes to mind.

Our strata sent a couple of letters to someone in our complex... worked too !
 
Sounds like you might need a new property manager!? Also those serious threats and behaviour would indicate it's more than a management issue and actually an issue for the police.
 
Tough position to be in.

Is the neighbour a tenant or does he own the property?

As Jaycee said maybe something from Strata may help. If he is a tenant you should be able to find out who manages / owns the property and pursue getting the tenant evicted that way?
 
You could also take an action in tort against the neighbour. Nuisance, trespass maybe. (sounds like it would stack up, and looks like you have identifiable losses also. see a solicitor
 
He's a tenant. He's also autistic and presumably on some sort of government assistance as he doesn't work and stays home all day.

I've spoken with the chairman of the executive committee and he's more sympathetic of his condition than of my situation. For instance, he downplayed the death threats as harmless and accused me of being irrational for moving out. Seriously, it was the most traumatic experience I’ve encountered.

The strata manager suggested that I raise it with his property manager. I’m also trying to find out who the owner is, as the property changed hands late last year.

I'll get onto it today, but what are the next steps if I need to escalate it? CTTT, NSW Fair Trading, Solicitor?

I’m not trying to seek compensation, I’m glad I got out of there. I just want to be able to lease out the property.
 
Well since you don't live there and playing music at loud volume is considered the norm, put a CD player on repeat 24hr of music they hate the most.
Turn up max, lock the door and go.
Go back and make sure it's still playing. Reply to any comments with
"isn't it just beautiful music? It just makes the day so much better!"

I would suggest this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjURO9L5fdc
 
Not sure that is the solution given there would be other units in the complex...

Have you tried speaking with the other unit tenants/owners as I am sure they are having the same problem as you are.

Then you can all speak with this guy because he probably doesn't think its affecting others.

Failure to get through to him means you need to get Fair Trading or whomever involved.
 
he's got a condition that prevents him from seeing things from other people's perspective. so i think talking to him would be fruitless.

also, he's half deaf, which probably explains the yelling and loud music.
 
Piston Broke said:
Well since you don't live there and playing music at loud volume is considered the norm, put a CD player on repeat 24hr of music they hate the most.
Turn up max, lock the door and go.
Go back and make sure it's still playing. Reply to any comments with
"isn't it just beautiful music? It just makes the day so much better!"

I would suggest this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjURO9L5fdc
Click to expand...

And here is my suggestion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZZ7oFKsKzY
 
I agree with Terry.....report crimes to police.

As for making noise & stuff - there are usually council by-laws that cover that so you should approach them first as I know it works really good - it was used against me (as a landlord) very effectively here in Vic.

I had some troublesome tenants that liked loud music day & night, and the odd burnout up the street too. I was self managing at the time.

Wasn't long before I had some phone calls from a neighbour complaining about it which quickly escalated to getting a notice from council. Council had asked the neighbours (yes several of them) to keep a diary record of the offenses and that I, being the landlord, would be fined a few hundred bucks for each offense if it continued. Since the tenants hadn't changed their ways after me warning them previously, as soon as I rec'd said notice, I served eviction much instantly......and all has been great since :D

I think you'll find a landlord can evict based on the the situation you've mentioned, and the council will know where the landlord lives due to the rates info so you won't have to worry about it.

This person may have issues but so do you.............
 
Sounds like you're going through same situation as a friend of mine whom lives in Hornsby... It sounds rather unfortunate and my friend has tried to get rid of him, I believe, but to no success. He hasn't gone as far as what others have said here though.
 
You said that the bad tenant is a tenant, who manages the property?

Your own property manager or the Body Corporate should know/be able to find out which agency manages this bad tenant, then you can complain directly to them. They can then breach, evict, not renew the lease etc.

If the managing agent/owner do not want to evict the tenant, there's nothing much you can do OTHER than report to the police and council. You can't force him to move out unless the police or council direct the owner to take that action against him.

It sounds like you're not innocent in this dispute so I'd be honest about what was said and done and hopefully the police can sort him out.
 
This is a very bad situation. I cannot believe that the Body Corporate, and the Property Manager are not acting. It does sound like you could do with assistance from other residents. If you can get others to also confirm that this tenant, is disturbing your peaceful enjoyment of your residence, then you have an action. Firstly, advise the Body Corporate that you will be taking this to the Ombudsman, and should they be found not to have acted correctly, that will give you grounds to sue. Secondly, take your complaint to the State Licencing Authority, and advise the agent that you are lodging an official complaint that they are not responding to your complaint, as they are required to do, under the relevant state legislation, and thirdly write to the local state members and solicit their assistance. Do not retaliate to anything, record as much as you can, on tape or video, and encourage as much assistance as you can from other occupants as you can. I appreciate, that we are only hearing one side of this situation, however giving you the benefit of the doubt that you are correct, I am amazed that your requests for assistance are being ignored. I understand that the other tenant has problems, however they should not become yours. We have managed many "problem" tenants over the years, and when approached in the right way, the majority do understand that they must contribute to a solution , if they want to live in "society". Look to your circle of friends for further advice and support.
 
I am more concerned about the death threats. This should be reported to the police.

Then there is the damage to property which should be reported too. Both are criminal acts. You could possibly get an AVO against that person.
 
Thanks all for your support. Given I made mistakes I don't want to pursue it for what happened in the past. Just want to put it behind me...I've now learnt not to fight fire with fire...so to speak.

Going forward I want to keep the property as an IP and I will escalate it to his property manager and then again to NSW Fair Trading / CTTT if he causes grief for our tenants.

We've since signed a new tenant so hopefully they won't have any problems with the troublemaker.

Also, i've since learnt that the new owner is the troublemakers parents!! So that's going to be tricky if things do arise going forward. Strange thing is, it's still being managed by a property manager. I think the property manager acts as a proxy-carer, as his parents don't live in Sydney.
 
Nightmare neighbours in a strata can be horrendous.

My closest experience was actually my parents'. They had 2 flats in a block of 6. Their tenants were all scared big time by one of the owners of the other 4 flats - in fact he was the son of the landlady who owned all 6 original flats.

The guy pulled every prank you could imagine from putting cockcroaches through other people's doors, harrassed the beejesus out of one of the other 92 year neibhrous (really nice guy) until he died, popped the tyres of all the other neighbours.

Not sure how he did it but he was somehow able to work out my parents were the landlord and found their office (through the company registrations as the flats were held through corporate trusts). He went and harrassed my parents every week to get them to agree to sack the 92 year old guy as the Chairman of the Owners Corp.

Absolute nutter this guy. I remember one of the tenants went to court with him to seek an injunction against him. During this time she went from being a fat girl to a skinny girl (all the stress too it out of her). Eventually she won and the guy was banned from coming within 200m of the street. After that he sold. His instructions to the agent were to make sure the agent doesn't sell to my parents and another pair of old couple (they also owned 2 of the 6 flats) since we didn't attend/support his vote to become Chairman of Owners Corp.
 
Horrible

You poor thing. Sounds horrible. I agree with the other post about contacting the police. Report everthing, take photos etc but please don't retaliate it will only make it harder to get help in the end!
 
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