"Is this legal?" Residents outraged over demanding aircon letter
Residents in a Sydney unit complex were left outraged after they were asked to turn off their air conditioners overnight.
A letter placed inside the elevator of the 18-floor apartment building states that the utility can only be used “during the following times."
“Weekdays 7am to 10pm, weekends and public holidays 8am to 10pm,” the letter said.
“At other times than this, please turn off your air conditioners, especially after 10:00 PM every day.”
The letter, which was posted on Facebook, received a lot of backlash from other residents and renters
One resident who lived in the 1960s building for a decade said it was the first time she had heard of such a request.
“Can anyone please let me know if this is legal? Can they actually force people to not run their own AC units?” the person asked.
Many other renters expressed their annoyance, with one joking that they'd have to pry the aircon off their dead hands.
“Anyone else feel like we are in a Nanny State?” one wrote.
“To be honest with 30°c nights they can pry my aircon from my cold dead heads,” another quipped.
One Facebook user also commented that building developers might be to blame.
“I think the strata builders got a bit cheap and installed less expensive aircons and therefore they are too loud. Bet if they had decent ones, the tenants wouldn’t have to suffer hot nights because of the noise,” they said.
A few others commented that it might not just be a request from strata, but local councils that are enforcing new noise pollution restrictions which affect aircons.
City of Sydney, Inner West, and Penrith councils, are a few of the local governments which require the airconditioners to be turned off 10pm to 7am during the week and until 8am on the weekend, the same time requested on the laters.
The local governments also recommend that residents and developers purchase high-quality airconditioners that won't cause noise pollution or disturb neighbours.
“Even if you’ve been told that it complies with noise requirements, it doesn’t mean it’s going to suit every location all the time,” the Inner West Council website read.
The letter comes as Sydney battles its second heatwave in the span of a week.
Images: Facebook/ Getty