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a judiciously parked planter pot with a leafy bush
A clever idea & definitely food for thought!
But for the record, what does the by-law actually say?
Thanks Jimmy.
By-Law 6-External Appearance – General: An Owner or Occupier must not keep anything within a Lot which is visible from the Common Property or outside of the building that is not in keeping with the appearance of the Building without the consent of the Owners corporation and the Building Management Committee.
Update: I received an email yesterday from the Strata Manager, saying:
“The committee decided on the night that if the structure (veggie garden) sits lower than or at the height of the balustrade then it would not contravene the appearance of lot by law and would be acceptable. Hopefully this can be accommodated as It is then essentially is just a ‘pot planter or a planter box’ and below eye level.”
Basically, they want me to remove the Vegepod’s protective cover which defeats the purpose of growing anything. We have 5 extremely tall plane trees (deciduous) adjacent to our premises, plus birds, usual pests, etc.
I’m just sitting tight at the moment, waiting for my stress levels to go down. Not sure what to do (if anything) from here-on.
As I write this, I can see my vegepod out my window. It is sitting on a low retaining wall and, strictly speaking, overlapping my courtyard boundary
Love this 🙂 Vegepod devotees unite!!
A Notice to Comply has to come on a specific form, as issued by Fair Trading
I greatly appreciate this information. Very helpful in case they attempt to escalate the matter. I’ve decided to ‘not poke the bear’ at this stage & ignore their unreasonable request.
Thanks Kaindub. The original & only notification was a polite email with photo attached, quoting the By-Law I was in breach of & asking me to “kindly remove the structure currently erected on my Lot within the next 7 days”. Not sure if that’s an “official” Notice to Comply. I moved the Vegepod out of sight of any neighbours & replied to the email asking correct procedure. As we were new in the building, I asked whether I had to make an official application requesting permission, stating my case for it, etc. I never received a reply. A month later, all residents received a standard notice of the next Building Committee meeting & I noticed “appearance of lot” on the Agenda. Thought that would be about me & my Vegepod so I attended the meeting as an observer. When the agenda item arose, I was given permission to speak to it.
There was one fellow on the committee who did all the talking. Rather a bully & everyone else just nodded their heads in supposed agreement. From his derisive comments, I knew his mind had been made up & nothing I said would convince him otherwise. I very much doubt any of them knew what the Vegepod actually is. I invited them to come & have a look at it & see that it’s simply a small garden with a protective cover but that was received with utter disinterest.
The “do nothing” & keep on watering my plants sounds like my best option at present, along with being mindful of the legal points Jimmy has outlined in his reply.
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