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Apartment life can mean high drama, writes Mike Bruce
SUE Williams and husband Jimmy Thomson thought life would be easy when they moved into their apartment.
Within a year they had witnessed a coup against the body corporate committee, the building manager was sacked, there were legal threats from the developer and preparations to sue the strata manager.
"It all went a bit pear-shaped and became a rather difficult period," Williams says.
They thought their building was an isolated case -- until they contacted several other apartment dwellers and found they were far from alone. After a year of research and education culminating in the establishment of a group called the Owners Corporation of Australia, Williams and Johnson had become so expert in matters of apartment living they wrote a book about it -- Apartment Living, a kind of Lonely Planet for apartment buyers and owners.
Williams says while apartment living in Australia is nothing new, it has evolved from small 10-unit walk-up blocks to "massive monoliths" with hundreds of units, lifts, swimming pools, gymnasiums, 24-hour security and million-dollar turnovers -- often overseen by inexperienced, part-time volunteers.
All of which can add up to financial,...