[Freddie]

Further to my last post; in regards to “…it suggests we could also consider going ahead and getting the dog and make the owners committee pursue us through issuing a notice of non-compliance.”

Is another point to be considered that the Owners Committee instead of issuing a notice of non-compliance and going to mediatition could just undertake the issuing of a CTT Penalty Order?

If we were breaching the by-law by getting the dog without permission…if the Owners Committee instead of going with mediation issued the a CTT Penalty Order, would we have no opportunity to challenge the Owners Corp but except going to district court?  

[Freddie]

Hi,
We are experiencing a very similar problem with approval of a small dog.
We have the default option (A) By-law for pets (i.e. you must apply to the strata to keep a pet and the strata can’t withhold approval unreasonably)
We have recently applied (via letter) to our Executive Committee to keep a dog and it was rejected due to ‘noise concerns’ and no further information was provided.
Before applying we researched possible breed and have chosen a breed considered one of the best for apartment living due to their size, tendency not to bark. We included references to websites which confirm this about the breed. We also explained that we will not allow our dog on any common grounds and our plans for training to ensure we have a well behaved dog.
We replied to the Executive Committee’s refusal asking for the opportunity to reconsider our application and allow us the chance to discuss further with as we believe they have been ‘unreasonable’ in their denial; as we had taken the time to select a breed which is suited to apartment living and stated that will we undertake a high level of training and care, we also offered in addition to use training devices such as ‘anti barking collars’ to ensure there is minimal noise.
But despite our request, we have not received any response or further information regarding their rejection.
Given all of this, we were looking at lodging with the CTTT for mediation and resolving prior to getting the dog. But after reading your last post it suggests we could also consider going ahead and getting the dog and make the owners committee pursue us through issuing a notice of non-compliance. Once we receive the non-compliance notice we could lodge with the CTTT that the Owners Committee had ‘unreasonably’ denied our request.
However we are concerned that the CTTT might take a less favourable view of our situation if we go ahead with our dog purchase and knowingly disregard the Owners Committee original denial of our request for a dog.
 
Any advice would be much appreciated.

[Author]

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