There’s a new neighbour from hell working your streets in an ever increasing frequency. 
This neighbour never reveals their identity and mostly lurks under cover of darkness. Their gripe is usually noise, particularly that of barking dogs.
Although in saying that, any animal that doesn’t quite live up to their personal standards of good animal behaviour may also become a target. 

A bored barking dog? A wandering cat? A grass eating rabbit crossing a boundary? A squawking bird?

This particular neighbour from hell’s vengeance knows no bounds. And the revenge is always delivered by this coward via poisoned bait, with the end result being a sick or dead treasured pet.
The Legal Eagle has lost count of the numerous recent news stories from across the nation describing the distress of neighbours whose pets have been targeted with poisoned baits, often disguised inside of meat or a food type preferred by the particular targeted animal. 
Mince balls laced with rat poison seem to feature regularly, although the poison bait can come disguised as anything that an animal might perceive as a tasty treat, from seed to sausage.

These low life ‘neighbours’ have a particular pattern to the way they work. Prior to their act of poisoning, there is always the obligatory nasty note. It’s here that you need to take any note threatening retaliation on your animal very seriously, particularly in the weeks immediately following such a note.
Let the police know about the note and if you can, set up a camera wherever you pet roams when you are out and try and restrict your pet to that area.
Post a warning sign in a predominant place that your property is being monitored but be vague about where the surveillance device might be.
And if you can keep the targeted pet inside even better.

Public parks favoured by dog owners have also become targets for these gutless wonders so ensure you keep your dog on leash if baits have been spotted at your local dog run.

What does the law say about this?

The police are normally brought in to investigate these heinous crimes, but because there are no standard national animal cruelty laws the various state by state laws relating to animal cruelty are left to be enforced by a range of different government departments.
Go figure!

So what you have are different government departments across Australia that are responsible for the enforcement and prosecution of animal cruelty laws. These are the agencies that are meant to handle your enquiries about a potential baiter or a baiting incident.
The punishments are heavy with jail sentences in the mix.
For example in QLD, a deliberate act of cruelty carries a maximum of three years’ imprisonment or a $252,300 fine, under the Animal Care and Protection Act 2001.

Also under the same Act, it is also an offence to administer or feed a harmful substance, with the intention of killing an animal, with the maximum penalty $37,845 or 12 months’ imprisonment.

In NSW, it is an offence to throw or leave poisons for the purpose of killing a domestic animal and that offence is punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a hefty $22,000 fine.

Despite these hefty fines, the baiters still persist in ever increasing numbers. This is why neighbours need to be vigilant, particularly at night.

Queensland mother Tracey Spoor found a threatening letter in her letter-box earlier this year warning her to keep her barking dogs quiet. The note said it was her “last warning”. Less than a day later, her pet, Bella, would be dead. The chilling letter demanded Spoor “think carefully” about her “children’s well-being” and suggested that she buy a special “zap collar” to control her pets.

To her horror, the next day Spoor discovered her beloved dog Bella coughing up blood. Vets told her they believed the dog had been poisoned but it was too late to save her.

What to do if your animal has been poisoned.

If you suspect or know that your dog or cat has eaten a poison bait, you must contact your nearest veterinarian IMMEDIATELY. Do not delay action or wait for your pet to exhibit symptoms.

If poisoning is suspected, induced vomiting may help to reduce the amount of toxin absorbed by the gut (but you must still take your pet to your nearest veterinary practitioner as soon as possible). Your veterinarian will be able to advise you how to do this safely. However, if you have it available, placing 2-3 washing soda crystals on the back of the tongue should cause vomiting.

Senior Constable Peter Smith notes that many the owners receive abusive and threatening letters, hand-delivered to their mailbox prior to poison offences being committed.

It’s at this point  you really need to take very decisive action to protect your pet. As mentioned, surveillance or keeping the four legged family member inside should be high on your options list.
You might also like to think about ways to calm your animals down if noise is an issue. Ask friendly neighbours whether your dogs are making lots of noise when you’re out, and if so, be proactive in controlling that.

Remember with these neighbours from hell, you are dealing with sneaky vengeful people who won’t want to have a chat with you over the front fence.
No-one deserves the devastation of losing a beloved pet through these horrendous acts so take immediate steps when harm could be near.

FIND OUT HOW TO DEAL WITH NOISY POOCHS HERE

HOW TO SOLVE MOST NEIGHBOURHOOD DRAMAS HERE

Everyone wants to be good neighbours and when they aren’t, life can be hell. It’s not until something goes wrong with a tree, fence, noisy dog, noisy neighbour or retaining wall that relationships can turn sour.

Fences are the No.1 cause of disputes among neighbours. The Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria (DSCV) found that 38 per cent of the neighbourhood disputes were over fences.

A timber fence that was erected 40 years ago when the land was subdivided may now be showing signs of rot. According to the law, neighbours have to come to a solution on a “sufficient dividing fence” and pay half each.

Disagreements arise when neighbours are deciding if it should be fixed, replaced, what the colour or height should be and the cost. One neighbour may think it would be fine to fix a few palings, while the other may want the whole side replaced.

Problems also arise with agreeing to what is “sufficient”. The fence may need to be higher for one neighbour due to privacy, or to contain a pet. If one neighbour wants a fence that is more expensive, then they have to pay more than the other neighbour, which again can lead to arguments.
Find out about your rights under the law and remedies with fencing – HERE

Amanda Hickey is a mediator and helps neighbours come to a resolution. She finds many fencing disputes are about where to erect them and getting a surveyor to determine the exact boundary line, which costs money that no one wants to pay.

“You find older people stay in their house for a long time. They seem to be attached to their fences and they have a whole story about why it should be in spot X but it’s in spot Y,” she says.

Noise complaints come in second place as a cause for frustration for neighbours.
In NSW, 18 per cent of all neighbourhood disputes handled by the Community Justice Centre (CJC) were noise-related and of those, 57 per cent were barking dogs.

If the noise is late at night or very loud and excessive, the police can be called. But what if the dog barks every morning when the owners leave for work?

What if the neighbour’s child starts to learn the drums and plays every afternoon when the nearby baby is trying to sleep?

Power tools in the early morning and air conditioners running all night are other causes of friction.
And of course there is the endless barking and carry on from some unneighbourly dogs.
Find out about what you can do about neighbour noise – HERE
And crazy out of control dogs – HERE

The third largest cause of friction among neighbours is trees. In Victoria, complaints concerning trees account for 17 per cent of all disputes. A jacaranda planted 15 years ago may look lovely until the branches start growing over the neighbour’s fence, blocking views.

In 2017, of all NSW tree disputes, 68 per cent were applications concerning a tree causing damage to a property or injury to a person, while 32 per cent were applications concerning a hedge severely obstructing sunlight or views.
Even a beautiful jacaranda tree can cause neighbourly disputes.
Also, root systems don’t adhere to property boundaries. Roots can grow under fences and disrupt the pipes of neighbouring households.

There are no simple rules about who is responsible for pruning or cutting down a tree that affects neighbours, which can cause more disagreements.
Check out your legal rights and remedies concerning trees and fences – HERE

Adrian Mueller is a strata lawyer and finds the fourth, and the most difficult, dispute among neighbours is retaining walls.

The lack of legislation and the expense to fix a retaining wall means neighbours can spend a long time in court trying to come to an amicable resolution.

“They take a long time as there is a lot at stake. If it is about to collapse, one day there is a big storm and it comes crashing down,” he says. “The clock is ticking, it is not covered by insurance and no one wants to pay for it.”

With thanks to Melissa Gerke

There are always lots of neighbour issues when you live in an apartment.

The people upstairs come home when the pubs shut and then party till 3am every weekend. The nice young woman downstairs goes out to work, leaving her little dog to yap all day until she comes home. The young fellas on the floor below clearly have never learned what their stove is for, so every night is barbie night – preceded by the ritual burn-off of old fat, the smoke and stink from which pours into your apartment.

“Ah, well, that’s apartment living,” you tell yourself as you turn up the volume of your stereo to full “doof” to drown out the sound of the 12-year-old next door practising her clarinet for an hour every evening. By the way, your music is now keeping the shift-working nurses on the other side awake.

Is that really what we have to put up with when we live in apartments? There should be some give and take, but there are also limits

Most states have laws that would curb the weekend party animals regardless of where they lived. After midnight you can call the cops and your neighbours could be fined and even have their stereo gear impounded.

And there are by-laws in apartment blocks that limit excessively loud music all day, not just late at night. That includes little Miss Clarinet squeaking her way through the first few bars of Rhapsody In Blue.

The yappy dog is almost certainly breaching by-laws, not to mention local council ordinances. The barbie boys are creating a nuisance (although proving it may be tricky).

In fact, all of these scenarios involve some breach – some of them several – but who wants to be the apartment block grinch by complaining?

Do you really want to bump into the blokes from downstairs, now seriously undernourished because their landlord has ordered them to ditch the barbie? Are you prepared to wear the guilt of ruining a child’s musical ambitions (or, at least, her parents’)?

Taking The Middle Ground
However, there may be a compromise and the way to achieve that is by talking. The people above, below and next to you have no idea how loud the noise they are making sounds in your flat.

The blokes downstairs have no concept of where their barbie smoke goes and how bad it smells when it gets there (OK, they’re not that bright). The woman whose dog barks while she’s at work, doesn’t know … she’s at work, after all.

That said, talking isn’t always an option because no one likes to be confronted by an irritated neighbour at their front door. And in some blocks you can’t even get to other floors, anyway.

However, the anonymous note is a particularly irritating form of communication.

So a friendly chat before you complain has to be a better option. And perhaps the way to open the discussion is to offer a gift with a note attached.

A card saying: “Can we talk about your barbecue …?” attached to a box of chocolates or bottle of drinkable red will at least show you are not the negative namby-pamby nimby they might otherwise assume you are.

To be fair, there are people who live in apartments whose response will be “I can do what I want in my home and if you don’t like it, tough…!”

In which case, you have been given licence to unleash the “dogs of strata” war, in the form of by-law breach notices, complaints to the police and letters to landlords if they’re tenants. However these by-laws are difficult to implement and notices to offenders often lead back to mediation before they are heard in a court.

What can a body corporate do in these cases?

If a body corporate believes that an owner or occupier is breaching the by-laws, the body corporate can speak to the owner or occupier informally to try to fix the issue.

If that doesn’t work, the first formal step under the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 is for the body corporate to give a by-law contravention notice to the person it believes is breaching the by-laws.

The decision to give a by-law contravention notice can be made by the committee, or the body corporate at a general meeting.

The body corporate usually cannot take action to enforce the by-laws until it has sent a by-law contravention notice.

The body corporate can give a ‘continuing contravention notice’ to an owner or occupier if it believes that they are breaching a by-law, and it is likely that this will continue.
(So that first contravention notice acts as an official warning for that owner to remedy the situation.)

An example of this type of breach is where an owner has made a change to the outside look of their lot without the approval required in the by-law or they have an animal that is constantly annoying other residents because of its noise.

The purpose of the notice is to ask the person to fix the problem within a certain time.
The notice must:

♦ say that the body corporate believes the person is breaching a by-law
♦ detail the by-law that the body corporate believes is being breached
♦ explain how the by-law is being breached
♦ set a time period for the person to fix the problem
♦ explain that if the person does not comply the body corporate may:
◊ start proceedings in the Magistrates Court
◊ make a conciliation application (mediate the matter).

The body corporate will need to fund any legal fight and costs can mount, so again the conciliation/mediation pathway is probably going to be the least costly. Of course, you do need the cooperation of a potentially stubborn neighbour in this case.
(BTW You may get costs awarded if you win but such an award may not cover all your legal costs.)

With thanks and acknowledgement to J Thomson for his contribution to this post.

Barking dogs, problem fences, loud noise and disgusting smells from neighbours?
Check out all the solutions, and your legal rights HERE.