This QLD article is about the body corporate’s obligation to test noise levels.
Table of Contents:
- QUESTION: What is the definition of excessive noise? How can my dog, who might have barked for less than 1 minute, be classed as excessive noise?
- QUESTION: As a lot owner, am I able to get the body corporate to test noise levels to ensure adequate installation is installed in the walls?
Question: What is the definition of excessive noise? How can my dog, who might have barked for less than 1 minute, be classed as excessive noise?
What is the definition of excessive noise?
We’ve received a breach for our dog barking. I’m trying to understand how my dog, who might have barked for less than 1 minute, could have breached this bylaw.
Answer: The problem with this type of noise is in determining what constitutes “nuisance,” “interference,” or “unreasonable.”
Dog noise in high rise buildings has three levels of control;
Queensland Government –
Dog Barking
The law says that if a domestic animal (usually a dog) barks excessively, an abatement notice (i.e. a notice requesting that they cease the noise) can be given to the dog’s owner if the problem can’t be resolved directly.
Local Government (Brisbane City Council, for example)
Animal Noise
It is perfectly normal and reasonable for animals to make noise from time to time, just as children make noise when they play outside. In Brisbane, animal noise such as a barking dog, a squawking parrot, or the trilling call of a guinea-hen is considered a nuisance when it unreasonably disrupts or inhibits activities at adjoining premises or nearby residential land.
Under Council’s Animals Local Law 2017 (the local law), a person must not keep an animal if it causes a noise nuisance. In determining whether a nuisance has occurred, an authorised person can consider a number of factors. These include:
- whether complaints have been received from multiple persons, occupying separate dwellings in the same or adjoining streets as the noise
- the frequency and intensity of the noise
- the time and duration of the noise, specifically
- where the noise is made for more than a total of six minutes in any hour from 7am to 10pm on any day
Body Corporate By-Laws (these often over-ride both State and Local Authority controls)
By-Laws do not normally address dog noise specifically; however, they often require that an “occupier of a lot must not create noise likely to interfere with the peaceful enjoyment of a person lawfully on another lot or the common property”.
The problem with this type of noise is in determining what constitutes “nuisance,” “interference,” or “unreasonable.” The result is the same as the human response to noise; there is no one black or white answer. These are all subjective terms that require an “expert” or “authorised” person to make a judgement. These are not easy matters to argue in court.
Ross Palmer
Palmer Acoustics
E: [email protected]
P: 07 3193 0500
This post appears in the May 2021 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.
Question: As a lot owner, am I able to get the body corporate to test noise levels to ensure adequate installation is installed in the walls?
I am an owner of a townhouse with shared walls on both sides. All the townhouses have wooden floorboards and a wooden staircase. I have two issues regarding noise in my townhouse.
The first issue is that rental tenants with an 18 month old child have moved into one of the townhouses adjacent to ours.
The second issue is the stairs that run up along either side of my unit. You can hear every single step every time someone uses the stairs, to the extent that it sounds as if someone is in my house using my own staircase. Also when people talk on the stairs (which are internal staircases connecting the levels in each townhouse that are tri-level) you can hear word for word in my apartment.
As an owner, am I able to get the body corporate to test noise levels to ensure adequate installation is installed in the walls?
Answer: As evidence, make a log of the times and some degree of measurement of the noise.
Where this one sits is that:
- The body corporate has an obligation to reasonably enforce by-laws; and
- The by-laws will be breached (depending on their wording) if the noise unreasonably interferes with the use and enjoyment of your lot.
So for the body corporate to be able to enforce the by-laws they need evidence. Normally that will need to come from you as the complainant. It is not necessarily the body corporate’s obligation to gather its own evidence on your behalf. Proving that noise unreasonably interferes can be sometimes difficult so it is an easy argument for the body corporate to justify that they aren’t willing to take the risk of trying to enforce the by-laws when they aren’t satisfied they have enough evidence to be successful in the first place.
So what we would suggest is taking a log of the times and some degree of measurement of the noise. You can then send that to the body corporate and ask them to take by-law enforcement action. The alternative is to ask them to send around a note reminding occupiers of the noise that can be created on the stairs and early in the morning.
Frank Higginson
Hynes Legal
E: [email protected]
P: 07 3193 0500
This post appears in Strata News #148.
Read next:
- QLD: Q&A Noisy floorboards upstairs disturb our peace
- How to deal with noise complaints when living in a Strata Community
Still after more about the body corporates obligation to test noise levels or even more general articles about strata in Queensland? Visit Strata Noisy Neighbours OR Strata Legislation Queensland
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To NoiseNet
I am in Cairns.
My noise problem happens at night. First of all there is a change in the amount of air in the air vent shaft in the bathroom. It becomes more audible around 10pm and sounds like extra air whoosing through and it continues until around 8am. Then the sound that really keeps me awake comes on. It isa low frequency sound like a motor pumping sound where my washing machine cavity is in front of the bathroom that keeps going on until 8am too. I can hear it in the wall of my bedroom when I lie in bed. It is in the wall of the loungeroom if I try to sleep on the couch too.
At one time I was convinced someone either upstairs above me or the unit below were doing clothes drying all night for whatever reason. This has been going on for 4-5 months as the air vent system wasn’t working when I moved in.
We have received this comment from Stuart Clough, NoiseNet:
Determining what constitutes a noise nuisance can be a very personal thing. Some people like things loud, their music, their TV and their life. Others appreciate peace and quiet and any noise they can’t control is an intrusion. Between that, there are some guidelines that have been established in general law to manage noise complaints.
In the Strata space, this hasn’t been carried through and strata managers are left to deal with what “unreasonably interferes with the use and enjoyment of your lot” means. So, when dealing with noise levels, the body corporate has 2 challenges:
1. finding out the facts of the situation (how often and how loud are the noises in question) and
2. then determine if they unreasonably interfere.
Noise diaries are a great first step, as mentioned above, but if you feel your Body Corporate is not responding appropriately you may need to get a 3rd party noise level tester to more effectively prove the facts around your situation.
Noise level testing has traditionally been a very expensive option. Short term testing to prove how loud a problem is may be affordable (but Murphy says it will be quiet while they are there to take the measurements). Proving how often the noise issues are occurring simply multiplies the cost.
Also, because you are (most likely) living in your apartment, telling the difference between the intrusive noise sources and noise created by you going about your business in the apartment is difficult.
We at NoiseNet come across this issue all of the time. We currently operate in South East Queensland and have plans to expand. To carry out noise level tests, we are using a Smart Noise Monitoring technology that uses directional microphones and automated analysis to be able to measure and analyse noise levels over an extended period (a week or two). The system will both tell you how loud a noise source is and where it is coming from (side walls, from the ceiling etc,).
In some cases, it can filter out noise from inside your apartment as well. And, because the process is automatic, it is affordable to carry out long term monitoring.
We are currently looking for buildings to test out the system. Get in touch to see if your building, and noise level problem, may be suitable.
I have a problem with the unit above me it sounds like stomping when they walk. It is floorboards. It is intrusive and the uńit owner refuses to do anything about it. It is affecting me badly.
hi Kere
This article should assist: QLD: Q&A The very noisy floor upstairs disturbs our peace