Our building manager has just sent out a notice to all residents drawing their attention to the following:

The Executive Committee considers the safety of children very important. A reminder to all residents regarding children playing on common property. A specific By Law requires supervision of children in all common areas including the car park and gardens.

The Strata Schemes Management Act 1996 Schedule 1 by-law 7 states: 

An owner or occupier of a lot must not permit any child of whom the owner or occupier has control to play on common property within the building or, unless accompanied by an adult exercising effective control, to be or to remain on common property comprising a laundry, car parking area or other area of possible danger or hazard to children.

Our building has a large outdoor courtyard and garden area and the wording of this by-law seemed to be somewhat ambiguous to me in respect to outdoor common areas that aren’t dangerous.

So I did a bit of research and on the NSW Department of Fair Trading found a document title “Strata Living”

https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/pdfs/About_us/Publications/ft045.pdf

In that document I found a slightly different version of this same by-law (additional sentence highlighted).

Searching on the web I can find both versions of this by-law in wide use.

The additional sentence is a clarification of the first two sentences. To my mind the omission of the third sentence clarification does not change the meaning of the first two sentences, it merely makes them more ambiguous and open to interpretation.

Does anyone know why both versions of the by-law exist and what the practical effect of removing that third sentence is?

Thanks very much,

Lachlan