SHOW NOTES
In this week’s podcast JimmyT and Sue Williams look again at the issue of the overturning of the pet ban by-law in one of Sydneys biggest and poshest apartment blocks, in the wake of the warning by the committee that any pets brought in before the appeal is heard may have to be “put down”.
Is it a valid threat as there may be a window when there is no active by-law? Lawyers at ten paces, we think.
And what if the Appeals Tribunal says, yes, you can have a no-pets by-law … but not that one? Are there now enough angry people in the building to block a new by-law? This one could run and run.
On the subject of votes and “overwhelming majorities”, we discuss scenarios where a 90 percent vote for or against something, can be very deceptive – with one example tuning out to be just 36 percent of owners, rather than the 90 percent claimed.
At what point do Tribunal decision set legal precedents? Not at the basic level, that’s for sure. And do humans have an inalienable right to keep pets? How about the right to choose to live in a building that doesn’t have them?
In the future, will developers write into the strata management documents that a block is pet-friendly or pet-free? The former seems more likely with between 30 and 60 per cent of Australian families owning pets. Would you reall want to reduce your potential sales or rental market by about half?
Sue reveals that Cunard cruise ships now allow pets on board and even have kennels for when Mummy and Daddy go ashore.
Jimmy recalls the time he wrote a promotional video about taking pets on holiday for Tourism NSW – only for the launch to be abandoned when the then tourism minister was caught with his pants down, literally, at an office party.
We discuss some of the strange things people put on their apartment block roofs – like vegetable gardens, chickens and bees – and whether you should speak up when you see someone behaving badly in your strata scheme.
It’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.
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OTHER LINKS:
Jimmy’s Australian Financial Review columns
