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My brother has put up solar powered Christmas lights in the front garden. The owner is saying that this is a breach. There is no damage done and no noise and they are turned off early and his only neighbour in the other townhouse loves them.He has a two year lease. Note all lights are solar. No wires across any areas. No making of holes or any alteration/damage of any of the property. No one walks in the fully enclosed front garden.Also the owner says that the strata says no. No strata laws have been provided. It is a private family company that owns the building but also owns the strata? No evidence they have meetings or any tenant representation.How can fight this and what would a breach mean? If they issue a breach what do they have to provide?
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If it is common property then you cannot put anything there. If not, there are usually bylaws about changing the external appearance.
To actually take action they would need to go to NCAT. It would be a waste of time for everyone because all that would happen is your brother would agree not to do it again.
The most important point is does he really want to annoy his landlord. At the end of his lease might he want to extend the lease. Maybe the landlord will find a way to make life difficult. Is it a small town and the landlord will make sure everyone knows that he is a difficult tenant. The easiest and most sensible thing to do is to dismantle them. If he wants to he could apologise for not checking with the landlord first.
Hello mailbox
You have not mentioned your location. We always assume it is NSW, unless otherwise stated.
In NSW, a company does not “own the strata”. Your brother’s townhouse is one lot in a strata plan. The owners of each lot form a company called the owners corporation. The owners corporation keeps a set of by-laws.
Most owners corporations delegate the responsibility of day to day running to a strata manager. If you want to find out what by-law your brother has broken, you should ask for a copy of the strata plan’s by-laws. The strata manager should have these. So ask the landlord how to contact the strata manager. In fact, every tenant should receive a copy of the by-laws when they first move in to the property.
There may be a by-law explaining that you cannot put things on display in the front garden if people outside the garden can see them. It is not about how benign the decorations are. When you life in a strata plan, there are rules which promote a consistent look from one townhouse to the next.
In NSW, a company does not “own the strata”. Your brother’s townhouse is one lot in a strata plan. The owners of each lot form a company called the owners corporation.
In a build-to-rent scheme, the company does “own” the strata and it may not be a strata scheme at all (although it would be if they wanted the option to sell individual properties in the future). Classic examples of this are where the builder-developer wants a penthouse with a view so builds enough apartments underneath to achieve their lofty ambitions.
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