This month, Draincare have outlined the benefits of knowing your neighbours when living in a strata scheme.

As a plumbing maintenance company who services numerous body corporate clients through an afterhours service it comes to light that numerous unit occupants don’t know their neighbours or don’t have any contact names or phone numbers.

We often receive calls after normal business hours for reports of water leaking into one lot from another which normally works out to be an owners responsibility for repair and not that of the body corporate.

The question is asked, “do you know your neighbours or have a phone number for them” and the response is no, we don’t know them sorry.

If the neighbouring property is not at home during the time of a plumbing emergency and they are unable to be contacted water ingress and damage can continue which can be costly which may often lead to an insurance claim.

If all unit occupants whether they be an owner or tenant have contact details for their neighbours a simple phone call to alert them of a possible flood issue or burst water pipe internally within a lot can be controlled quickly with the fault eliminated in a timely manner to help prevent property and personal item damage.

A simple hello to your neighbour to introduce yourself and swap phone numbers could save a lot of money, property damage and stress.