11 November 2015 by Mornington Peninsula News Group

NEWS DESK

Chelsea • Mordialloc • Mentone

The lighter side of strata living

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PHONE: 03 5973 6424 Published weekly

IT can be a stressful work life being a strata manager. Tenants and apartment owners don’t call unless something has gone wrong and needs to be fixed, preferably quickly. But Stephen Raff, CEO of Mordialloc based Ace Body Corporate Management, can see the funny side of the strata manager job after more than 20 years in the business. The Ace Body Corporate founder has compiled the strangest and most amusing incidents into a book called Strata Living Stories. Incidents range from the elderly lady who literally hosed down a couple next door whose “banging like rabbits” regularly breached the peace to a tenant who installed a trapdoor in a home to keep pigs under the floorboards. Mr Raff said most calls are about leaky taps or wear and tear but other call outs can be confronting for various reasons. “Our job as a manager is very stressful. It’s probably one of the most stressful jobs you’d ever be in because we’re dealing with all walks of life from all different cultures, backgrounds and classes,” he said. “They’re often yelling and so on and we have to wave the magic wand and fix it.” He decided to write a book about the more humorous side of the job for industry insiders but he says tenants, landlords and homeowners will also see the funny side of some of the book’s tales. Mr Raff said he was stunned a few years ago to discover a tenant had installed a staircase from a rented apartment into the above vacant apartment. “He was living in a downstairs unit and he decided the vacant unit above his was a waste of accommodation so over a period of time he put a helmet and goggles on, dressed as a workman coming in and out, and built a staircase into the upstairs unit and lived in both.” The surprise stairway to tenant heaven was discovered when the landlord of the upper unit,

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Penning yarns: Ace Body Corporate Management CEO Stephen Raff has written a light-hearted book about unusual incidents involving apartment tenants and owners. Picture: Gary Sissons

who lived overseas, decided to rent it out. Another unsanctioned home renovation involved pigs being housed in floorboards under a home in Brunswick. “A tenant in a downstairs unit had dug a great big hole and put boards around inside and put two pigs in there to be fed every night to fatten them up for Christmas.” Neighbouring tenants complained about the smell of the pigs in summer leading to the discovery of the pungent porkers. Strata Living Stories is available to buy at stratalivingstories.com. au or by calling Stephen Raff on 03 8586 1300. Neil Walker

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Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News 11 November 2015

No tears: Wild Action expert Daniel Hunt lets Camille hold a crocodile at Parkdale Preschool.

It’s wild! Sea creatures in class PARKDALE Preschool children got up close and personal with a shark and even a crocodile during a Wild Action incursion, Thursday. The pre-schoolers at the Turtle session were able to see, and even touch, some of the sea life that’s native to Port Phillip Bay as a part of an expert visit to the Alameda Place kindergarten. Director Megan Miller said the preschool was known as the seaside kindergarten and the pupils strongly identified with the beach. “The Wild Action incursion is a fun and tangible way the children can identify with their immediate environment and feel part of a wider community,” Ms Miller said. “This gives them a sense of belonging and a healthy respect for the wildlife they have seen and touched. “They can also grasp the importance of sustainable practices, such as putting litter in a bin, rather than it flowing to a storm water drain, ending up at our beaches and harming the environment.”

Wildlife expert Daniel Hunt, of Wild Action zoo, provided an insight into each of the creatures, such as sea urchins, sea stars, Port Jackson shark, shark egg, hermit crabs, spider crabs, sea slugs, puffer fish, crocodile and pot-belly sea horses. There was even a hermit crab race. Mr Hunt said the morning laid the foundations of environmental awareness and consciousness in the children. He said it helped foster empathy and compassion for sealife, while promoting a sense of wonder and exploration about the natural world. “All these creatures have an important place in the food chain and each one of them is needed to keep the balance in the eco-system,” he said. Wild Action is a private zoo licensed by the Department of Sustainability and Environment Victoria. See wildaction.com.au for details. The non-profit Parkdale Preschool is run by a parents’ committee. It has a limited number of places available for 2016. Details: 9580 1155.