Well Fair Trading may have given you correct advice but I don’t know if it’s the best advice. You are now looking at the garden being permanently installed with no regard to your or anyone else’s amenity.
They are obviously going to try to portray you as the baddie and themselves as the goodies. You need to turn that perception on its head.
First of all, ask for the email addresses of all the other owners, on the grounds that they had misconstrued your position and this needs to be rectified.
They will probably refuse on the grounds of privacy and you can tell them that privacy laws don’t apply to corporations of less than a $3m p.a. turnover and that you are entitled to see every document that the owners corp hold and that includes the strata roll and a list of email addresses.
Then you can write to the other owners and ask them to reject the “all or nothing” proposal and instead ask the committee to come up with a compromise that limits the spread of the garden and its visual intrusion, including that bins and composting is hidden and that tools and accessories are tidied away every day.
Point out that your and other owners’ amenity – the outlook – are being sacrificed to boost the amenity of one owner, the hobby gardener.
Point out that very few other people use the garden and then in very limited ways.
Point out the ratchet effect of by-laws – easy to pass on a whim, impossible to change even when only a minority of owners want to retain them.
Come up with your own compromise solution, even if it’s only a rough idea, to show that you are not being Nimby about this.
Finally, if you are reticent about speaking out, consider talking to our sponsors Strata Answers who will offer practical help and advice (for a fee).