I asked in the only two DIY groups that have any real traffic. I was asking about DIY solutions to the problem, not for legal advice.
As a matter of
Australia, strata title, which has some similarities to the US condominium system but we don?t have home owners associations here. How things must be done it spelt out in the strata title legislation.
Rod Speed is a foreigner in a foreign country with its own laws.
He must be anxious to be considered a Brit considering the time he spends in UK DIY but as he has admitted to having a German Grandparent he isn?t even of pure British Isles stock who moved down under. A right mongrel.
GH
Very easy diy solution. Have your friend buy a set of lock picks. That will play serious mind games with the lock changer.
You're all mongrels on that frigid soggy little island, stupid.
A friend from New Zealand was going to visit in Australia and immigration asked him if he had a criminal record. He answered "No, is that still a requirement?" The immigration officer, thankfully, had a sense of humour and let him in - - -
Can't you pursuade the block management not to pay?
But if they don't, no one gets to use the balcony but the miscreant.
Oh, I thought you meant the management pays for the miscreant. I suppose if they asked him to pay them back to restore the lock, he would ignore them. Do they have any control over him, like turning off his electricity or water until he pays a substantial fine?
Of course that have recourse. The OP doesn't want to hear about it. How could you have a property with 120 units, shared elements, where obviously people have to make payments to cover the costs of maintaining the common areas and no means of collection? I guarantee you that the deed and the governing legal documents spell out an elected board to\ administer the place, enforce rules, levy fines, and place liens to collect. He acts like this is unique, a first rodeo. Anyone at all familiar with these things knows that issue like this arise all the time and are dealt with, everything from unit owners damaging common area property, misusing it, putting crap out on common areas, parking in spots that are not assigned to them, etc. This is just stupid.
Raise his rent by $500 for the private balcony.
Yep.
No, both are illegal for strata management to do that. Since he is one of the flat owners, that's the problem he can ignore that with impunity. In theory the strata management can use the small claims court to make him pay for the lock changes, and that doesn't involve any legal fees, in fact you arent allowed to use a lawyer, but if he chooses to ignore the court decision, there is nothing that can be done about that. We have never had debtors prisons here.
Stick a toothpick or two into the keyhole.
Get a strata manager here to repeat all your circle-talking nonsense and it might be believable. No, there isn't a debtor's prison. The method is to place a lien on the property and the owner can't sell the property without satisfying the lien.
Which from reading the bumph
the individual lots should be precisely marked on the plans, so the ownership of the balcony should be clear, and there is a legal entity behind the common parts, so doesn't the legal entity just sue the lock-changing d*****ad?
Yes.
and there is a legal entity
Yes, but as I said elsewhere, the only viable way to do that with such a small cost is to use the small claims court and the problem is that its decision is not enforceable using a bailiff and it is trivial to ignore debt collectors and they wouldn?t be interested in such a small debt anyway.
Which is why I was asking if anyone could think of any mechanical way to stop the miscreant from keeping on getting a locksmith to keep changing the lock and we have now confirmed that no one can come up with any legal way of actually preventing him from doing that.
Yes, it is certainly possible to get a court injunction to stop him getting the lock changed by a locksmith, but that wouldn?t be cheap and he is likely to just ignore that and is very unlikely to be jailed if he ignores that with a civil matter.
And while it would certainly be feasible to setup a surveillance camera with movement detection so that any time a locksmith shows up change the lock someone can show up in person or remotely tell the locksmith that he isnt allowed to change the lock and it is unlikely that any locksmith would change it anyway, there isnt anyone there full time who is prepared to do that and it obviously isnt feasible to pay some commercial operation to do that.
Can't you escalate it to a higher court for enforcement?
No. It has to be a whole new action at a stupid cost.
And we have never had debtors prisons.
Which presumably you can heap onto the d*****ad?
Only the most outrageous frivolous civil actions ever see costs awarded against the losing party.
And like I said, we have never had debtors prisons.
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