› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Pets: Furry friends … or fiends? › Pets are allowed in NSW apartments after new strata by-laws ruling › Current Page
I used to be a “Strata Guru” on this forum, and while my Wife and I are no longer Strata residents, I couldn’t resist adding some comments and advice regarding the recent Court ruling about the keeping of pets in Strata.
As well as holding TAFE Cert 4 in Strata Community Management, I also hold a Masters Degree in Applied Science (Chem), the relevance being that I understand the “limits” that can be set, both realistically and administratively, around prescribed parameters whether they be for the detection of chemical analytes or under Strata By-Laws.
Enough of that…..but the relevance of it to the current conundrum of how to manage the keeping of pets in Strata Communities is that an acceptance parameter of “zero” is neither realistic or administrable.
The Special By-Law (SBL) that I wrote for the 23 Lot Plan we then lived in, and that I then self-managed, put administratively simple conditions around the keeping of pets by Residents.
The SBL permitted aquariums and one (1) caged bird by Application, and as best I can recall placed each of these conditions upon Applications for other pets:
▪ Renters requiring their Landlord/Owner’s prior written consent to the keeping of pet/s on their Lot
▪ Applications for assistance animals being supported by a written verification as to the animal’s status (training) from Assistance Animals Australia.
▪ A letter from a registered veterenarian who had physically inspected the Applicant’s Lot and found it suitable for the keeping of the specific pet/s in terms of physical size (of the pet and the lot), and for the overall wellbeing of the animal.
▪ A photograph of the pet/s.
▪ A written statements around the normal undertakings by Applicants to not place pet “residues” into the sewerage system serving the Lot, to manage noise, to not to permit their pet/s to be unleashed on the Common Property etc etc, and their acknowledgement of the consequences of a breach of any Consent under the SBL.
Details of any Consents were included in a Pet Register that formed part of those items disclosed with Strata Inspections.
The operational consequences of this Special By-Law (SBL) were that those Residents who at best produced a letter from a GP to assert how much they needed their pet weren’t sent packing but were instead referred to the SBL, and only those with a genuine desire to keep and to properly care for their pet bothered to “jump through all the hoops” attached to that SBL.
As best I can recall, up until I “retired” from Strata Residents of eight Lots (of 23) had Consents to keep pets, only one had been served with a Notice to remove their pet after the 3 written warnings prescribed under the SBL, and perhaps of most significance, nobody had cause to run off to the NCAT because they’d been given a flatout NO to pets.
I hope that’s helpful, because I think I’ll now return to my retirement from this Forum (sorry Jimmy)