@Rosebank91220 said:
Subject to section 49(4) of the Act, an owner or occupier of a residential lot must not keep any animal on the lot of common property.
The correct wording is “on the lot OR common property” not “of”.
The current wording of the by-law is below …
Some pedantic strata committee’ require a pets to be carried over common property, happy to be corrected …
These are not “pedantic committee” rules. Regardless of how pedantic they are, committees can’t pass by-laws – that requires a 75 percent vote of owners at a general meeting.
And if the rules or by-laws are in place, then there’s nothing “pedantic” about enforcing them. That’s just good management. If the by-law doesn’t suit the building then the owners should change it.
… however my understanding in NSW is that a strata organisation cannot unreasonably refuse to allow you to keep a pet!
No so. It’s only where the pet by-law in a specific scheme allows pets, subject to the permission of the owners (as represented by the committee), that permission may not be unreasonably refused.
That’s why a lot of schemes have brought in blanket “no pets” by-laws, as they are entitled to do, because that takes care of the “reasonable” test.
Now, if the owners haven’t changed that by-law then they have to provide a reasonable reason for any decision to refuse a pet – and “we have never had pets before” is not a good reason, it’s just a question of history.
But it is wrong to say that pets can’t be unreasonably refused in NSW – that only applies to schemes that have that contingency in their by-laws, and by-laws differ from scheme to scheme.
Schedule 2 by-laws for pre 1996 schemes (in 2016 Regs)
(1) Subject to section 157 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, an owner or occupier of a lot must not, without the approval in writing of the owners corporation, keep any animal on the lot or the common property.
(2) The owners corporation must not unreasonably withhold its approval of the keeping of an animal on a lot or the common property.