Ban the barbies Most people agree that old attitude of “my home is my castle” has no place in apartment living … until it comes to barbecues.
In other parts of the world the very idea of having a barbecue on your balcony is greeted with questions about your sanity. Yet in Sydney, we’re expected to allow the smoke and smell of burnt offerings to pour into other apartments, while drunks stumble around playing with naked flames and gas cylinders 20 storeys in the air.
Did you know the average barbie gives off the equivalent in cancer-creating chemicals as 200 cigarettes? Just in time for the summer “smoke out your upstairs neighbours” season, this plea arrived in our in-box. QUESTION: I live in a 4 unit building and our neighbour downstairs has been using his barbecue on his deck right underneath our balcony. Thick smoke gets in our eyes and we have to close our doors, especially with a 12 month old baby.
The neighbour doesn’t care if the baby is on the deck or not. There is an allocated barbecue area on the premises but he insists on using his own barbie, on his deck. There is no by-law prohibiting the use of barbecues on balconies or decks. Should I draft one for our next AGM? Choked, Artarmon
ANSWER: Plenty of buildings already ban barbies, so go for it. However you will need both of your other neighbours to support you as any new by-law requires at least a 75 percent vote in favour. Failing that, you probably already have a by-law that prevents anyone doing anything that interferes with your right to the peaceful enjoyment of your apartment. This standard by-law was used by the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal earlier this year to prevent a couple from smoking in their apartment because the smoke somehow got into their neighbours’ homes.
So it’s up to the chop-charring chump downstairs to stop smoke from their barbecue going into your unit or face up to $5500 in fines. And considering there’s a BBQ area on the property, they really have no excuses.