Here’s an interesting development on the non-smoking front. Owners in the building in the CBD that won the case banning smoking in an apartment because tobacco fumes were leaking into neighbours homes, are being asked what they think about establishing non-smoking floors in their building.
Now, before anyone gets too hot and bothered, I can’t see anyone being told what he or she can’t do INSIDE his or her apartment unless it clearly affects their neighbours.
However, this could be bad news for those of you who take a sly puff on the balcony where you have been banished by your non-smoking partners. And, logically, it could be an end to the unbelievable selfishness and stupidity of barbecues on at least some balconies.
Since many modern balconies are common property, your neighbours could force you and your fatal attraction to burnt meat and tobacco back inside your home where you can only harm yourself and your family.
But what would happen if all the owners on one floor agreed that they didn’t want smoking inside their own or each other’s apartments, ever? They could probably do that by clauses added to their property contracts, agreeing that none of them would smoke or allow tenants to smoke or allow future purchasers of their property to do either.
Or they could go to their Owners Corporation and ask them to pass a special bylaw covering their floor that made it non-smoking. That’s where it might get tricky if enough neighbours, spotting the thin end of a very thick wedge, objected on principle.
Fewer than 20 percent of Australians smoke regularly but they get very, very angry if we suggest that the right of the other 80 percent to fresh air is more important than their right to kill themselves and their children with carcinogenic fumes.
Finally, the City Futures research centre at UNSW is about to wrap up its survey into managing major repairs in strata. Flat Chat readers have already responded in numbers but if you have something to say about strata repairs and you haven’t already done so log on to www.surveys.unsw.edu.au/survey/154313/1330/ and start ticking the boxes.