Roundup: Are balconies the next child safety battleground?

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There’s a very lively discussion going on in the Forum right now between a Flatchatter who has installed child safety netting on her balcony and her committee and strata manager who want it removed.

The committee has issued a Notice To Comply with a bylaw that says you can’t drill into common property without written permission or change the appearance of the building. And they accuse her of having compromised the waterproof seal on the balcony by drilling into it.

The Flatchatter says her installer hasn’t gone near the waterproof seal (under the floor tiles) and the net is virtually invisible and anyway the by-law says they can’t prevent the installation of a fixture relate to child safety.

All of which, appropriately enough in this month in which we are all supposed to have our childproof window locks installed, leads us to the question of what is more important – child safety or the aesthetics of an apartment block.

Or, to look at it another way, are we being too concerned about the safety of children on balconies? Maybe not. The standard height of a balcony balustrade is a lot lower than the height below which you have to install childproof window locks, so you’d have to think it’s worth considering.

And then what about the balcony furniture and the planter boxes and flowerpots? If they were placed next to your pool fence, for instance, would render it technically unsafe and illegal because of a climbing risk.

Are balconies going to be the next battleground for child safety?

Logic would dictate that yes, they should be. However, conservative common sense might nudge you in a different direction … until a kid clambers on to a planter box and falls over the balcony to their death or serious injury.

Anyway you can find the discussion HERE. And there are plenty of other questions and answers in the Flat Chat Forum, like these doozies:

  • Can a couple who are co-owners both be on the strata committee? That’s HERE.
  • What is a reasonable standard of noise insulation if you’re laying down timber floors? That’s HERE.
  • Highly paid consultant turned out to be a committee member. Can we get our money back? That’s HERE.
  • Should the chair be doing half the work we pay the building manager to perform – and should we get a discount? That’s HERE.
  • Noisy renter neighbours ignore our complaints – and so does the committee. What do we do?  That’s HERE.

There are more questions and answers every day on the Flat Chat Forum.  Subscribe so you don’t miss out.

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