A Sydney mum is shocked after receiving a letter from her apartment building strata company threatening to pursue legal action if she doesn’t control her toddler’s “excessive noise”.
Janin Mayer, 33, says she feels ‘bullied’ by the threat of the $550 fine from strata company Bright & Duggan after residents in her Vaucluse building complained about the noise “in the form of (her) child shouting and screaming from early in the morning to very late at night on a regular basis”.
Mayer, her husband Evi and their 19-month-old son Elliav have only been living in the apartment block for under three months.
Mayer posted the letter to her Facebook over the weekend, which said that: “This is disturbing other residents and as such you are in breach of the strata scheme by-laws.”
“Please refrain from allowing your child to create excessive noise immediately and into the future,” the letter continued. “You must be mindful of other residents and keep noise levels to a minimum at all times.”
The stay-at-home mum is expecting her second child in just over a month and told News.com.au that she tries to do the best she can about the noise.
“We try, obviously we’re aware of the fact that we’re in a city and there are neighbours. We keep the windows shut. I don’t know what else we can do.
“He’s a toddler, that’s what toddlers do.”
She wrote on Facebook: “WTF?! Discrimination to the utmost! I am revolted,” to which she received overwhelmingly positive responses.
However, it’s left her worried for when her second child will come.
“With a newborn, realistically it’s going to be even noisier – that’s what babies do. I don’t know if they are going to try and be even more aggressive about the matter. I don’t really feel there’s anything we can do to resolve the situation.”
She continued: “Our long-term plan is actually to leave Sydney, and this just reinforces it. The cost of childcare, the cost of rent, makes it impossible to save. Who can afford to buy?”
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