{"id":594980,"date":"2026-04-09T05:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T05:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/594980\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T05:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T05:30:12","slug":"malvern-east-residents-caught-in-state-of-anarchy-over-love-athletica-noise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/594980\/","title":{"rendered":"Malvern East residents caught in ‘state of anarchy’ over Love Athletica noise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RachaelSave<\/p>\n

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Fiona McAllister was driving home from work when she ran a red light, narrowly avoiding a collision in broad daylight. She wasn\u2019t distracted or under the influence; she says she was simply \u201cfunctioning in a state of constant exhaustion\u201d.<\/p>\n

For three years, the Malvern East resident has been woken most mornings around 5.45am by what she describes as the \u201cthumping and crashing\u201d of a Pilates studio operating two floors beneath her bedroom.<\/p>\n

\"ResidentsResidents Fiona McAllister and Nick McCaffrey outside the Hedgeley development on Belgrave Road where Love Athletica is a tenant on the ground floor and they live in an apartment on the second floor.Waynet Taylor<\/p>\n

\u201cI just burst into tears,\u201d McAllister said of the moment she realised how close she had come to a crash. \u201cIt\u2019s a nightmare. It makes you feel crazy. My doctor wanted to put me on antidepressants.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dispute at the Hedgeley development on Belgrave Road has become the latest flashpoint in what advocates describe as a \u201cstate of anarchy\u201d within Victoria\u2019s strata laws.<\/p>\n

Despite an independent noise report finding significant breaches and a formal notice being issued, a legal technicality known as the \u201c75 per cent rule\u201d<\/a> has left residents powerless to enforce their own building rules.<\/p>\n

McAllister and her husband, Nick McCaffrey, are among a number of residents who say their lives have been severely affected by the daily noise emanating from Love Athletica \u2013 a ground-floor fitness studio they claim has been operating in breach of its permit since 2019.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

They describe instructors dragging heavy reformer machines and \u201csitting boxes\u201d across bare concrete as early as 5.45am and dumbbells being dropped on the floor throughout the class. \u201cAs the warm-up finishes, they drop their weights … 3, 2, 1, and then bang!\u201d McCaffrey said.<\/p>\n

The couple have tried sleeping pills, white noise machines and meditation. They leave evening events early and cannot watch a film past 9.45pm as they know the thumping will begin at dawn. <\/p>\n

Related Article\"Rosanna<\/a><\/p>\n

But residents are trapped in a three-way bureaucratic stymy between Stonnington Council, the Environment Protection Authority (EPA), and the state government\u2019s strata laws.<\/p>\n

City of Stonnington CEO Dale Dickson conceded to The Age the original 2018 permit for the gym was issued based on an application for a \u201cPilates studio\u201d only, and did not include the use of weights or the dragging of heavy reformer machines. Because they weren\u2019t in the application, the council says the noise from the weights and equipment \u201ccould not be regulated through permit conditions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rather than directing the business to stop the unauthorised use of equipment, the council has granted Love Athletica multiple extensions to apply for a new permit. <\/p>\n

Council officers also conducted multiple inspections, but claimed the site \u201cdid not result in an unreasonable impact on residential amenity\u201d. Environment Protection Authority Victoria similarly told The Age it found no regulatory breach during a single unannounced inspection \u2013 at a time between scheduled classes. The agency has since advised that \u201cstructure-borne\u201d noise impacts are a matter for the council, though it claims its investigation is \u201congoing\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, an independent acoustics report commissioned late last year by the building\u2019s owners corporation at a cost of $4000 relied on 48 hours of synchronised, continuous recording with microphones placed in McCaffrey and McCallister\u2019s apartment and the gym. <\/p>\n

The report, obtained by The Age, found the studio exceeded regulated night-period noise limits by 6 decibels and best-practice guidelines for gymnasiums by up to 17 decibels. It concluded that even \u201cminor impacts\u201d with the concrete floor, such as placing a dumbbell down softly, generated clearly audible noises in the apartments above.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Love Athletica, however, has remained firm. According to McCaffrey, the studio told him they did not want to install soundproof flooring because it would ruin their \u201clook\u201d. In a statement to The Age, co-founder Caroline Knipe said the business had a long-standing presence in the building and claimed it has faced \u201cno material change to its operations\u201d and \u201cno prior complaints\u201d since it opened. Resident impact statements seen by The Age cited informal complaints to the business as far back as 2019.<\/p>\n

The ground-floor commercial lot is owned by billionaire Paul Little and managed by Nelson Alexander, who were served with a formal Notice to Rectify by the owners corporation in January. Both Little and Nelson Alexander were approached for comment.<\/p>\n

\"CarolineCaroline Knipe, co-founder and studio designer of Love AthleticaLinkedIn<\/p>\n

While the council and the EPA have told residents they should take VCAT action via their owners corporation, as reported last year by The Age<\/a>, a new VCAT precedent has effectively lifted the bar for legal action by requiring 75 per cent of all residents in a building to vote in favour \u2014 a threshold nearly impossible to meet in large developments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is farcical,\u201d says Adam Promnitz of the Strata Owners Alliance. \u201cThe government over six months on still hasn\u2019t fixed this crisis. This is a clear case the rules are intended to cover\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Allan government is now facing accusations of dragging its feet on strata reform, despite pushing a high-density agenda for Melbourne. An independent review into strata laws was handed to Consumer Affairs Minister Nick Staikos in December 2025, but four months on remains unreleased.<\/p>\n

The Age applied under freedom of information laws to access the report, but was denied in full. The refusal cited cabinet privilege, claiming the document was prepared specifically for cabinet consideration.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Opposition consumer affairs spokesman Tim McCurdy said the Liberals had also lodged an FOI request. \u201cThere is no good reason for it to still be hidden … Victorians deserve transparency, not secrecy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Department of Government Services said the government is \u201ccarefully considering\u201d the report and will have more to say \u201cin due course\u201d.<\/p>\n

After approaching all available agencies and bodies, including ward councillor Jami Klisaris and local MP Michael O\u2019Brien, McCaffrey and McAllister are at the end of their tether.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree years we\u2019ve been having these conversations about [whether] we stay,\u201d McAllister said. \u201cNot one person has listened to us. We just want to live a quiet life\u201d.<\/p>\n

Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"RachaelRachael Dexter<\/a> is a journalist in the City team at The Age. Contact her at rachael.dexter@theage.com.au, rachaeldexter@protonmail.com, or via Signal at @rachaeldexter.58Connect via Facebook<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-594980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}