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QUESTION: I work from home and I like to wander down to collect my mail in my pyjamas – snuggly jim-jams that cover me from slippers to chin and have bunnies on them.
Anyway, the other day I got a note saying I had breached a by-law about being dressed inappropriately on common property and if I did so again I could get fined $550. My friend said I could even be evicted. Is this true? – Sleepyhead, St Leonards.
ANSWER: Theoretically, if your EC can prove pyjamas are ‘inappropriate”, you could be fined for breaching a by-law. Also, breaking by-laws means you have breached the terms of your lease.
In reality, however, even the CTTT won’t fine you for wearing clothes that cover ten times more than the average teenage girl’s party gear. And, breach or not, your landlord would more than likely tell the Owners Corp where to go.
If you want to fight it, write to the Executive Committee and ask them what “appropriate” means. Or chuck on a pair of trackies and a hoodie when you do your postal run. Apparently looking like a street thug is appropriate dress for most occasions.
Is there a dress code in your building? Have your say HERE.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
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Encountering the same bloke resident wearing burnt-orange trakkie-daks and beige hoodie on the common property a couple of times, looking REALLY daggy and not caring about it, I swore to myself never to ‘go and get the mail’ or ‘something left in the car’ or ‘go to the convenience store’ in my round-the-house trakkie-days or generally looking daggy like I don’t care.
Take the hint, In a Jam Over Jammies! That’s my advice.
This brings to mind a former neighbour. On various occasions we were on the EC together and on other occasions I had reason to knock on the doors of all the neighbours over some issue or other. This particular rather proper lady was always in pyjamas and dressing gown whenever I visited and always apologised as if I had caught her in a very unusual occurrence. It really didn’t bother me in the slightest!
Another very elderly neighbour admonished me for discretely looking aside rather than waving in a friendly fashion when passing her unit and seeing her sitting up in bed.
If your EC wanted to make anything of your snuggly neck-to-ankle jim-jams I would expect them to be laughed out of court. Tell them to grow up!
More seriously, I think by-laws generally only have any validity if consistent the strata laws and other higher laws. If you were dressed in a manner that would not be inconsistent with general public decency laws I doubt the by-law could be applied, not that I’m a lawyer. Indeed, I can’t see the point in it. If you breach a general law use that, if you don’t breach the law then I don’t think the by-law is much use.
The ‘Chaser Boys’ might be lurking next time ‘Sleepyhead’ wanders out in her jammies and issue her an on the spot fine.
I’m more worried that Sleepyhead seems to only have one pair of pyjamas (unless she has multiple pairs of the same). Personally I think it is a good idea to get dressed every day but that is a personal choice.
Seriously – query what is inappropriate, if you were wandering around in a g-string and nothing else, yes that may be inappropriate. In the absence of a by-law setting out specifically what is appropriate, they don’t have a leg to stand on. There is a very funny case on this, about a community in Tweed Heads.
The OC can’t fine you, they would have to take you to the CTTT to do that. They also don’t have the power to evict you, your contract is with the landlord and I doubt they would do that.
This from a good friend of Flat Chat:
Picked my sister up from her apartment at The Horizon on Saturday, at noon, and guess what? An adult in her pink jammies and ugboots checking out a car space or something on the street, then back into the lobby and up into the lift. Maybe she’d just read your column.
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