Question: Who is responsible for addressing the noise issue caused by upstairs neighbours with floorboards lacking acoustic underlay, installed by the previous owners?
My upstairs neighbours have noisy floorboards without acoustic underlay. The previous owners installed the flooring. The new owners are a family who make more noise and have loud children. The owners corporation claims they can’t do anything since the current owners didn’t install the floor. Who is responsible for addressing this noise problem?
Answer: The owners corporation should seek to regularise unauthorised works and have the current/previous owners obtain the proper approvals.
In relation to unauthorised works in general, the owners corporation should be seeking to regularise them and have the current/previous owners obtain the proper approvals.
There is case law that imposes on the owners corporation the duty to remove any alterations or additions to the common property that have been made by an owner without its approval and re-instating the common property to its previous condition.
Despite the above, you will likely have the standard flooring by-law (which requires floor coverings in case of unreasonable noise) and the nuisance provisions under the Strata Schemes Management Act, 2015 (NSW) regulates such noise too.
This post appears in the October 2023 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.
Leanne Habib Premium Strata E: info@premiumstrata.com.au P: 02 9281 6440