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Neighbours. They can make life heavenly or hellish. Multiply that by your apartment number, add the proximity factor and you’ve got a potential nightmare. Unless you make an effort to get the most from this close-knit kind of community.

For some people, apartment living can be very lonely. They might move in, expecting it to be one big social scene, but rarely bump into their neighbours and end up feeling quite isolated. Somehow, the fact that they’re actually physically surrounded by people only makes that seem harder to bear. Others, however, actually work hard to turn their building into the friendly neigh-bourhood they’ve always dreamed of, without sacrificing the privacy of their own apartment. It’s worth trying to make your building as good a place to live as it can be – and maybe even earn some extra cash while you’re doing it.

1. Use The Noticeboard
Legally, most strata-titled blocks have to put meeting agendas and minutes of their executive committee (EC) meetings on display to all other owners on a noticeboard. In practice, though, many complexes don’t have proper noticeboards or have tiny ones kept under glass with only the building manager or EC chair possessing a key. There, they allow only official notices and often incomprehensible minutes written in ridiculous legalese.

That’s a shame because a noticeboard is usually the heart of a good building, a means of residents communicating with each other, of the building manager letting everyone know what’s happening, and a great way for an EC to keep in touch with everyone. Then, grumbles about problems in the building spill over into real anger far less often. If, say, the pool heater is broken, and residents find out first by a notice on the board before they dive into icy waters, they’re much more likely to be reasonable about the inconvenience.

The clever residents of one building put mini noticeboards in its lifts. It’s amazing how few people will take time to stop at a noticeboard, but in those seconds traveling from floor to floor, people can pick up valuable information.

2. Pressure The Executive Committee To Be Transparent
If you’re on the EC of your block, push to make that EC’s work transparent to other owners, with good, comprehensive and clear minutes of meetings put on the noticeboard, notices of all meetings planned, and signs about any changes or announcements. If the EC takes up the challenge and becomes much more communicative, you will be amazed at how effective it is in making residents feel part of the life of the building.

One member of a new EC suggested that the EC issue a newsletter with, among other items, EC members’ names, phone numbers and email addresses attached. The chair was outraged. “I don’t want people phoning me up at all hours of the day and night with stupid complaints.” He was ousted at the next election with one of the complaints against him being that he was “aloof and unapproachable”. His replacements have not, as yet, suffered death by phone call, and say they’re probably called by residents three times a year each, tops.

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