Down sizing - House to Apartment

[givemeaspell]

There are loads of apartments going up in my suburb, I've often thought that down the track when we are empty nesters that we might consider moving to an apartment.  Wondering if any one has or if you have always lived in apartment and you like that lifesyle what are the pros and cons?  Body corporate comes to mind as a negative.

[serendipityricho]

Beware the -body corporate.

Rented no 10 of 10 units.

The head of the body corporate owned and resided in no 4.

A retired school head mistress -who had nothing to do and all

day to do it in.

Wandered around with a clip board making all the renters lives a misery.

Water was on 2 meters 1-5 and 5-10.

The 5-10 used more water than the other one.

(owners to share cost).

She left a note under my door that after the last light went out she was turning the

main tap off.----left lights on all night.

Next day she knocks on the door and wasnt happy.

We came to an agreement.

If she turned the water off i would get some stuff from APM forests

and nothing would grow in her garden for about 200 years

Water kept flowing-lol.

[jean2579]

Beware the -body corporate.

Rented no 10 of 10 units.

The head of the body corporate owned and resided in no 4.

A retired school head mistress -who had nothing to do and all

day to do it in.

Wandered around with a clip board making all the renters lives a misery.

Water was on 2 meters 1-5 and 5-10.

The 5-10 used more water than the other one.

(owners to share cost).

She left a note under my door that after the last light went out she was turning the

main tap off.----left lights on all night.

Next day she knocks on the door and wasnt happy.

We came to an agreement.

If she turned the water off i would get some stuff from APM forests

and nothing would grow in her garden for about 200 years

Water kept flowing-lol.

Precisely why I hate stratas.

[kengillard]

norti Richo:^O:^O

[i-once-was-bump]

I love living in a unit, no noise from either side or upstairs, really well sound proofed.

Need to stand your ground over parking but other than that don't give a damn about anything.

Everyone knows not to smoke anywhere near me.:^O

I let the others fuss over the garbage bins and the clothes lines enclosures etc, if they want to fuss then who am I to stop them?

However, there is a large townhouse development very close and one of the owners has her niece (a woman in about her 50s) living with her and that niece is infamous in the area for being the neighbour from hell.

i don't know how anyone living there can put up with her, they all are driven totally mad by her but can't get rid of her.

She actually opens up the plastic bags of rubbish in the bin and then tells the "owner" of the bag how much food they wasted and how many starving people there are in the world and so on and how some of the pieces of paper they threw out could have been used for writing shopping lists etc.

When she appears in the local shopping centre the street empties within seconds.

[happyroo_bunji]

oh just remembered about the cigarette smoke.  When in the unit the crazy neighbour smoked and it would waft over to my place (I'm a non smoker), then there were the other strange smokey smells from her place as well followed by a shipping container of perfume

[*crikey*mate*]

My parents lived in an apartment quite a few years ago now - Brilliant views overlooking the beach and surf at Maroochydore. My dad hated every minute of it. Had to catch a lift to go outside, getting the groceries from the car into the lift and then into the apartment was frustrating and woe betide if you forgot something and left it in your car, had to go all the way back down to get it. Or of you got down to your car and realized you had forgotten something.... He reckoned it was like a day trip just to pop down the shop for a newspaper.

Nowhere to crank up the BBQ when guests arrived except for a balcony and whilst they were lucky in that no other people could look in, the apartmentsd on the side of the building or the back of the building had other apartments close enough that they could see right in to their places and thus needed to keep the blinds closed all the time

[bright.ton42]

Crikey, reading some of the horror stories here have made me cringe, but I've had my share too.  Even  living in a house once.  I had terrible neighbours on one side who had drunken 

parties and loud stereo and screaming matches out the front

I'm now in a unit but it's ground floor with a reasonable size courtyard.  And the unit is a good size too so it's not pokey. Three storeys with 12 units.We each have our own car park. 

 We have a Body Corporate but I'm on the committee (of 3) and as the committee we can set a lot of rules and as we all get on we agree on most things.    That woman on the body corporate who walked around with a notepad had no right to do that, and tenants are well-protected by the Tenants Union (I think it's called).

. 

You have to pay the BC fees each year , also be ready to fork out for building

maintenance but as it's divided by 12 it's not so bad.  

The flats are well insulated with thick brick walls so usually noise is not a big  problem, and

we urge  considerate behaviour.  Occasionally residents will make unreasonable 

noise and that has to be dealt with. 

So I think it boils down to what kind of unit and  building you move in to, making sure it's comfortable,    and -  the neighbours.  No-one can predict what they will be like, either in a house or a unit so that's a risk you just have to take.  And upmarket areas don't guarantee good and quiet neighbours either, far from it.   .  

[mainecoon1]

giveme if you want to downsize it would probably be best if you bought a town house or a unit in a small complex don't be dazzled by the idea of resort style living as it will cost you in body corporate fees

In 1996 my OH and I bought a unit off the plan in a complex of 174 units 2 low rise buildings and 2 high rise buildings with pool, gym,spa and sauna, all this was great in the beginning when there were few people living there but as more people moved in and started to use the amenities we were no longer able to use them due to people peeing and pooing in the pool.  The peeing was bad enough as they had to increase the chlorine in the pool to such a level I could no long swim in it  On the few occasions someone pooed in the pool the whole thing had to be empted cleaned and refilled which cost a fortune.  The gym equipment also cost a fortune as people miss used it and it was constantly having to be repaired or replaced

Even though our units where double brick render you could stlll hear water noise through the wall and if anyone was talking in the common areas you could hear them through the front door you could also smell other peoples cooking and some of it was not pleasant as well as smokers as these smells also came into our unit.  By the time we sold our unit and bought our house we where paying $1500.00 per quarter for Body Corporate Fees so on top of paying off a mortgage we had to find an extra $6000.00 per year for BCF's  During the 16 years we were living in the unit we also had to pay 4 different sets of extra levees the smallest was $500.00 which had to be paid in 7 days.

We are much happier in our house and would not consider moving back into a unit again.

[joz*garage]

Why do they call them apartments when they are all stuck together?

[serendipityricho]

Good call Joe.

Asked the estate agent -whats the difference between a flat and a unit.

The reply was -units are dearer to rent -but no real difference.