MAR001

I start hating comparisons but I lived in the UK for 3 years and we have nothing to say about crime, the closest episodes are some friends that had a robbed into their home in Putney (next to us) nine months ago..

Today, I was watching a movie in my flat (ground floor in Kingsford, Sydney) and a guy jumped my fence and got into my patio. I yell at him asking to leave.. then he told me that he lives in the block next to mine and he was just picking up his hat.. I took some pictures without being noticed and called the police.

Police came 50min after and then we realised that another patrol was in the other building so sadly the same guy robbed a flat of a mature lady taking jewelry and money... (Good thing to have taken the pics anyway)

Should I ask to the STRATA to put bars in my windows or any other advise regarding this matter?

Dreamy

Bleeding brass blowers... they get everywhere.


Okay, I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.

OP, I think bars on the windows could be a bit of an over reaction - make sure there are good window locks and that you always have your patio doors locked (preferably with the type of lock that can't be overcome with a spade under the bottom edge of the door..)

sheene

Get yourself a dog, or a drunken All Black.

Kooky.

Unfortunately bars on the windows are not an overreaction here in Sydney city and city fringes, if you have ground-floor windows and doors. My friends have bars and security doors on their houses - it put me off even looking at houses especially as The Geek travels so much.

I doubt the management are responsible for making the unit secure; speak to your landlord. Unfortunately if the Exec Committee is anything like mine, there will be by-laws on everything, absolutely every bloody thing, and your landlord may need to apply for permission to add anything to the externals and will probably be turned down. We even have rules about our window coverings (have to be white and "uniform") and...oh hell don't get me started.

Advice? Next time, don't get a ground-floor apartment. You're having all sorts of trouble there, aren't you?

MAR001

Yes indeed, I'm having all sorts of trouble here..

Last friday I encountered kind of a white sticky and stinky substance spread all over my clothes in the drying line and in the floor that definitely came from one of the two flats above.. My patio is a mess and my house smells like rotten cheese...

I try to be the perfect tenant, paying on time, not making complaints at all, repairing the things that I can fix.. but I've been here just one month and I have now 3 different episodes and reasons to leave... unfortunately, I can't afford to pay the penalty if I move early the end of my contract..

Don't know what to do really...

Kooky.

Unfortunately being the perfect tenant won't help you if the rest of the residents are total arses. Is your complex mostly tenanted, rather than owner-occupied?

If it makes you feel any better (not much, I'm sure) we bought our place, in a heavily owner-occupied - and not cheap to buy or rent - complex, and we still have a few problems too. Nothing major, but it does piss me off that my fees go towards paying for replacement veneer in the lift, because some git thinks it's fun to scratch obsceneties into it, and that the cleaners (who are great - the common areas are always spotless and fresh-smelling) have to clear stinky rubbish out of the chute room because some of my neighbours are too precious to make it small enough to go down the chute or walk down to the recycling room with it.

It's not your landlord's fault, but you should contact him to discuss the problems and he should get onto the Exec to do something about them. It's in his interest too if he wants to hang onto tenants and have a resellable unit.

Kiwipaul

Not sure the Body Corporate rules for NSW but in QLD if you have a private yard anything within that yard is your (owners) responsibility to maintain. The same applies if you have a private balcony anything within the balcony is your responsibility. So if you want security screens fitted it would be up to the owner to pay NOT the Executive Committee but they should approve it.

MAR001

Thanks Seasider,

My complex is entirely for tenancy purposes.

MAR001

Thanks Wikipaul,

When you say owner does that apply to tenants as well? I doubt I can make any change in this clock as it's almost brand new..

Kooky.

You can't make any changes without your landlord's consent - screwing screens onto windows or walls would surely require their permission. In the only rental we've had here the landlord objected to us putting up pictures unless they went on existing hooks. (I told him we paid good money for the place, we'd put them where we liked, and we'd make good the walls when we left - which of course we did, better than how we found them.)

Your landlord in turn probably can't make any changes like that without permission from the committee, even if he essentially owns the windows. If whatever he wants to do changes the external appearance of the property, it may be denied. Strata properties are not straight-forward.

Trust me on this - I wasn't joking about the colour of my curtains! And I may "own" my balconies but they've just had their walls painted a standard colour by a little man that abseiled onto them every morning, and there are rules about what I can and cannot put on them.

Your complex may be slightly more easy going, but don't assume anything. (Read some of the threads on that site I gave you the other week.)

edit: I'm in NSW, and most of the advice given on that site also relates to NSW

Alfresco

Fixed.

Kiwipaul

I'm in QLD and Strata properties have numerous rules.

BUT if you ask for permission to do something that's reasonable (fitting security screens at your cost within your private yard) and it is refused you can go to adjudication and ask an adjudicator to rule on it and if it is reasonable the BC decision will be overturned and it's not appealable. Cost is approx $200.

I've read loads of these decisions and the adjudicators seem to take the common sense approach and unless you are doing something totally unreasonable (steel shutters on all windows totally out of character with the complex) you will be given permission.

The trick is to ask for permission before you do anything and if it's refused you claim BC is being unreasonable and you have a fair chance of winning.

Executive committees cannot demand blind obedience to the rules they have to provide a fair and safe environment and all their rules must NOT conflict with any local or gov laws if so the BC looses.

Kiwipaul

Yes

Tenant would have to get owners permission AND BC permission.

Kooky.

You know, Paul, I don't think we're actually disagreeing on most points but I don't see the need for two of us to keep answering the same questions so over to you

Also because I know from the last problem they had that the OP doesn't want to fork out for a tribunal

sonlymewalter

These issues is one of the reasons I would NEVER buy anywhere managed by BC. The rules in some circumstances are so friggin uniformed it would drive me nuts, besides the stress everytime you wanna do something to your own place, never mind rented, would drive me bonkers.

As for adjudication - that costs more than a measly $200. The $200 is the fee you pay to hear your case. What about the money paid to the BC for meetings in relation to opposing your request? The BC is usually managed by a strata company who charge an arm and a leg and who pays for this? The owners. I should know cos I managed a BC company and we earned loads every time the owners fell out with each other. Like lawyers we laughed all the way to the bank

To the OP: You need to ask permission to make any changes. The BC will tell you what to do and how to do it. If it's going to cost the owner anything they'll normally add it somehow to the cost of your rent. Good luck mate