THERE was a gaggle of geese living in an apartment. A vindictive owner who regularly ran all the taps in his unit to deliberately push up the water bill for the rest of the block. And a horse that was kept in a Glebe townhouse.

The number of complaints about strata schemes has been steadily increasing over the past decade, rising from 945 requests for strata mediation lodged with NSW Fair Trading in 2003 to 1405 in 2009 and 1474 last year.

The joys of strata living ... full of surprises behind closed doors.

The top three complaints - which include problems with the management of the owners' corporation, bylaw breaches and repairs to common property - make up 80 per cent of all strata complaints. Fair Trading and the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal have been called in to mediate on a range of sensitive issues which have caused headaches for some of the 2 million people in NSW in strata schemes.