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It’s the perfect strata storm – a duplex where the two owners have already fallen out and tenants who introduce a dog which then proceeds to spray poo and pee on the poor people downstairs … then grows into a monster
Strap yourself in, this is a doozy.
“I am a lot owner in a two storey duplex,” writes Verago on the Flat Chat forum. “I am on the ground floor. The other lot is above me and is tenanted.”
When new tenants arrived with a puppy, they told Verago the dog was a Staffordshire terrier.
He decided to keep the peace, something he immediately regretted when he realised the balcony was the dog’s toilet area and the cleaning was done by a high pressure water hose.
“Unfortunately for me, dirty brown water and spray came onto my balcony, my furniture and all over my pot plants. My herb collection was rendered unusable,” says Verago. When he complained he was told, “it’s not our fault the wind changed.”
As time went on, another problem grew … literally. The “Staffy” got a lot bigger and revealed its true identity as an American Pitbull Terrier, a restricted dog.
Then, when the dog got old enough to lift its leg to pee, it did so against the balcony and down to Verago’s terrace below. The tenants have gone now and taken their dog with them, but it has made Verago wonder about the wisdom of pet by-laws when it comes to small strata schemes like duplexes.
You’ll never get agreement if the two owners have equal power and it’s very difficult to change by-laws in small schemes.
In Victoria, restricted dogs shouldn’t be living in strata schemes at all. The rules on keeping restricted dogs in a residential property are ferociously tight – including fencing and signage – and effectively mean dangerous dogs can’t (or shouldn’t) be brought into strata communities in the first place.
Log on HERE for more information about rules for keeping restricted dogs in Victoria.
They come at the issue a bit differently in NSW where restricted dogs have to be registered with the local council and you can be fined up to $16,500 for buying, selling, giving away or breeding a restricted dog.
By the way, there a very few specifically restricted breeds of dogs in NSW: American pitbull terrier or Pitbull terrier; Japanese tosa; dogo Argentino (Argentinean fighting dog); fila Brasiliero (Brazilian fighting dog); and Perro de Presa Canario or Presa Canario.
You can find out more about this HERE .
In Queensland, perhaps unsurprisingly, they have added dingoes to the list. You can read Brisbane City Council’s take on dangerous dogs HERE
There are so many reasons for not having a dangerous dog in any kind of strata scheme – and so many ways of getting shot of it if some idiot brings one in – you’re probably safer than if it were roaming the backyard of the house next door. Even so, to read the full horror of Verago’s doggy dilmema, and reader responses to it, go HERE.
A version of this article has also appeared on the Sydney Morning Herald’s online pages and in the print edition of Domain.
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