Is High Rise Harassment Increasing?

There's increasing reports of strata corporations acting unreasonably and perversely against the interests of one or a few owners and/or residents these days.  Like this Today Tonight news report about a few more disturbing strata incidents in Australia. 


Whilst it's true that there's two sides to every story and it's hard to say who's right and wrong in all situations, I'm sure none of us want to be involved in situations like this ourselves.  And, we certainly don't want to be harassed and forced out of our apartments by dominating committee members and managers.  But, equally we wouldn't want to be called 'strata nazis', strata police' or 'strata dictators or despots' when we're volunteering to help run the strata corporation and only doing our job.


Whatever the problem is in each strata corporation, the solution usually involves compromises that may not make anyone happy.  That's because strata corporation actions and decisions get imposed on owners and residents who may not (and often do not) share the same values, objectives, motivations, morals and views.  So, it's no surprise there's disagreement about decisions and whether they are fair or not.


Perhaps that's an inevitable consequence of strata title ownership and living.  Or, maybe it occurs because strata committees and managers are enforcing rules more strictly these days.  And, it's also possible that dis-affected strata owners and residents are also more aware of their rights to complain about things they don't like.  


But whatever the reasons, it's important that there's simple, quick and effective ways to resolve these differences fairly so that unnecessary animosity can be avoided (or at least minimised).  Otherwise, public perceptions that living in strata means being exposed to more prevalent neighbour issues that are hard to resolve, means being subject of majority oppression on decisions and means the risk of despotic behaviour by the strata leaders.  And that means that strata property is seen as a 'second rate' real estate; which is neither right or desirable since we'll all be living in higher density in the future.


So, let's use our heads (and hearts) to make living in strata a better experience that's free of high rise harassment.  After all, we're not in the school yard anymore.


Francesco ...