I own an apartment in Canberra with two underground car parking spots. Immediately above is my downstairs neighbour who lives in the ground floor apartment with a tiled courtyard and a small patch of garden.
The complex follows the guidelines set out by Icon Water whereby only hand watering of plants is allowed and hosing down of tiles/concrete courtyards is not allowed where it creates runoff.
For years, my neighbour has ignored all of this and repeatedly hoses down her sizeable courtyard, and then props the hose up in the handle of a spade stuck in the ground and leaves the hose running for hours, many times forgetting it completely and the hose runs all night. The result is that both of my car parks are saturated with water. There have been many times that the water has been running down the walls of the carpark and I have called members of the Executive Committee who live in the complex to witness the waste.
I have a hand written letter from the same neighbour from a couple of years ago apologising and promising that this will never happen again.
I have complained repeatedly to the Body Corporate, they send out letters instructing my neighbour not to do this as she's breaking the rules of the complex (she was a member of the EC for many years until they voted her out last year, so she was a member of the EC when these rules were agreed). Her response is "it's my place, I'll do what I want".
I have not parked in either of my spots for 2 years now as I refuse to wade through puddles of water to access them. Instead I have been utilising one of the visitor spots.
I can't put my apartment up for sale, as no real estate agent will be able to show the parking area, so the value of my property has now been compromised.
Then there's the fact that all of the owners are paying the water bill for water that floods the carpark.
The Management Company tell me there's no more they can do to enforce the rules of the complex. Is this true?
Can anyone advise what I can do to get this resolved?
Valerie
The complex follows the guidelines set out by Icon Water whereby only hand watering of plants is allowed and hosing down of tiles/concrete courtyards is not allowed where it creates runoff.
For years, my neighbour has ignored all of this and repeatedly hoses down her sizeable courtyard, and then props the hose up in the handle of a spade stuck in the ground and leaves the hose running for hours, many times forgetting it completely and the hose runs all night. The result is that both of my car parks are saturated with water. There have been many times that the water has been running down the walls of the carpark and I have called members of the Executive Committee who live in the complex to witness the waste.
I have a hand written letter from the same neighbour from a couple of years ago apologising and promising that this will never happen again.
I have complained repeatedly to the Body Corporate, they send out letters instructing my neighbour not to do this as she's breaking the rules of the complex (she was a member of the EC for many years until they voted her out last year, so she was a member of the EC when these rules were agreed). Her response is "it's my place, I'll do what I want".
I have not parked in either of my spots for 2 years now as I refuse to wade through puddles of water to access them. Instead I have been utilising one of the visitor spots.
I can't put my apartment up for sale, as no real estate agent will be able to show the parking area, so the value of my property has now been compromised.
Then there's the fact that all of the owners are paying the water bill for water that floods the carpark.
The Management Company tell me there's no more they can do to enforce the rules of the complex. Is this true?
Can anyone advise what I can do to get this resolved?
Valerie
