How not to get on your neighbour’s nerves – 8 tips for strata holiday parties and celebrations

The festive season is upon us once again. While the holiday season brings mostly upbeat occasions of celebrating with family and friends, it can also be a trigger point for disputes within community living.

The halls are decked, dreidels are spinning, things are jingling, and Michael Bublé is on repeat. To help you kick-back and relax, and spend more time doing the things you love, we have listed some key steps to help you avoid disputes and cranky neighbours when you’re getting into the spirit of things:

Courteous is key for strata holiday parties and celebrations

While you have the right to enjoy your private property, your neighbour also has the right to enjoy their property too.

The best tip to having a successful festive or end of year party is being courteous and having your celebrations within the parameters set out by your by-laws or building rules. What’s more, if you’re planning to use common property entertainment areas — such as barbeques or rooftops — make sure you have gone through your property’s formal booking process, like booking through your building manager.

Before you have your holiday-hooray

1. Check your by-laws rules carefully and ask your building or strata manager for clarification if you are unsure about anything.
2. Let your neighbours know in advance, including the date and time of when you intend to have the party, make sure to provide a finish time too.
3. Make your contact details available to neighbours and let them know if there are any issues that you are ok with them texting or knocking on your door. Encouraging friendly communication and making neighbours feel comfortable, can be a successful tool to living with minimal interference when common property or adjoining walls are involved.
4. Sometimes, it’s even worth extending the invitation to your neighbours. Offering an invitation provides a chance to get to know them and means those nearest to you aren’t hearing your party noise second-hand.
5. Keep your music at a considerate level throughout the party and remember the police can issue warnings and noise abatement directions even for one-off occasions.
6. As your guest arrive, or as your party takes place, make sure you check-on common area sites that may be impacted by your party — like bin rooms, garages and visitor parking areas. It can be helpful to let your guests know how much visitor parking there will be before your party.
7. Be conscious of guest coming and going. Increased foot traffic across common areas can be stressful for other neighbours, particularly if they have little children. It is always worth checking for spills, broken glass, or left open gates, that are a result of your party-goers.
8. If you have children at your party, make sure they are not left unattended to roam around common areas. It is also worth telling your guests who have kids with them if there are any dangers they should be conscious of, like spas or ponds.

If you’d like to find out more on managing noise in your strata property, download your free Community Living guide on managing disputes. Or for a consultation to review your by-laws by our Kemps Petersons Legal team, click here.