#13403
Whale
Flatchatter

    In the first instance, I'd be checking that your Plan's Special By-Law has been properly Registered and that it's shown on the Strata Title, because if it's not registered it's worth nothing.

    On the assumption that it is properly Registered, there are few restrictions on what By-Laws may prohibit, and your Owners Corporation (O/C) has covered one of those few by exempting Guide Dogs and animals for the Hearing Impaired from its Special By-Law.

    So I believe that these are your options, in order of preference:

    1. Just keep your pet cat inside your Unit and say nothing.
    2. If your circumstances justify, ask your GP for a letter to the effect that your cat is a companion animal, and submit that to your Executive Committee or Strata Manager together with a request to keep the cat, strictly under the terms that you've outlined (e.g. keep it inside etc)
    3. Apply to the Consumer, Trader, and Tenancy Tribunal for mediation of the matter, and argue that in it's current form the Special By-Law is restrictive and unreasonable, and seek to have it replaced with one of the latest “Model By-Laws” (contained in the NSW Strata Schemes Regulation 2010) where one of the options reads:

    (3) If an owner or occupier of a lot keeps a cat, small dog or small caged bird on the lot then the owner or occupier must:

    (a) notify the owners corporation that the animal is being kept on the lot, and

    (b) keep the animal within the lot, and

    (c) carry the animal when it is on the common property, and

    (d) take such action as may be necessary to clean all areas of the lot or the common property that are soiled by the animal.