Seneca (one of those famous Roman philosophers) wrote: ‘ It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it.’ That applies as much to strata disputes as it does to anything else.

Everyone has seen big ticket litigation in the Supreme Court on the news, with teams of bewigged barristers and lawyers walking their clients into courts.

Strata disputes are not like that.

Inevitably, everyone is more emotionally involved in a dispute over a strata issue than they would be in a corporate dispute over money in the Supreme Court. We are, ultimately, talking about people’s homes and investments. The buy-in is therefore strong from the outset. Community harmony is damaged as the dispute festers. Anonymous circulars get sent. Lawyers get engaged. Committee minutes include little niggles about the issue. Everything escalates in what should be a sanctuary – people’s homes. Your home is where you should go to get away from stress – not get more of it.