You know there's trouble ahead when the talk at the strata meeting turns to 'tone' - the tone of the building. Where a person or persons on the committee believe the building has a ‘tone’ the way a wine has a bouquet, something delicate, easily corrupted, and entirely their business to defend.

Invariably, talk of tone will be about something or someone 'lowering' the tone. People who speak of tone are seldom concerned with anything positive, so anything 'raising' the tone wouldn't warrant a mention. The focus Is always on maintaining or not lowering the tone.

Talk of tone in community living is, of course, a proxy for the ugly underbelly of discrimination. Tone is the thin veil used to mask racism, ageism, homophobia. Speak of these things and you are at risk of being called out. Speak of tone and you position yourself as the arbiter of good taste or the conservator of all that was once attractive about your property, when you’re actually just a snob, or worse, a bigot.

Read: Excellent advice for us all…

Of the many forms of discrimination in strata, age discrimination is more common than you might think. It manifests at both ends of the age spectrum - arbitrary rules that deny children the right to play on common property - often using vague concerns for safety as justification. At the other end of life, older residents are subjected to rules about improvements based on fears from the more able-bodied that the place might start to look like a nursing home.

A nasty case of age discrimination raised its head this week in one of the strata chat forums. An 83-year-old was 'breached' for having Coles deliver groceries to the foyer because the committee didn't want delivery trolleys in the foyer. Instead, he was to have them delivered to the car park, which he couldn't access because of his frailty.

What type of unfortunate childhood must those on this committee have had that they would do such a thing to an older person? The miserable bastards.

Read: Bludgers, Leeches, and the Psychosocial Safety Gap in Strata

This spate of food delivery trolleys sullying the ambiance of high-rise foyers is not confined to Australia. London’s Financial Times last week reported the case of Shard Place. Food deliveries have been stopped there too, and you can’t put rubbish down the rubbish chute after 5 pm – great for working folk.

What’s interesting about Shard Place is that it’s a Build-To-Rent, a form of housing being touted by some as an alternative to strata. Scan the media and chat groups worldwide and you will find these types of cases in all forms of title – strata, leasehold, condominium, housing associations. The grass might not always be greener on the other side - the problem might not be the form of the law - it might be the humans.

Read: England’s Housing Shame: Still Serving the Lords, Not the People

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