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Topic
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We live in a small strata title apartment block which has large areas of garden on the title of 2 of the ground floor units. One owner/landlord has let the grass and decking deteriorate, whilst the bamboo etc hedges (on the boundary of the land but just inside their strata) are running wild. I understand the concept that an owner owns the inside walls of a unit and usually the exterior walls are common property.
Am I correct in assuming that
(i) this owner is responsible for keeping ‘their’ foliage neat and
(ii) the foliage that extends over the boundary is common property.
I realise that ‘neatness’ is a bit subjective and this garden is not a safety or fire hazard; it’s just a mess!
If the owners corporation wishes to have the owner’s garden looking respectable can they require work to be done in and if so are they going to have a dispute about who cuts what?
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Replies
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We are considering an amendment to one of our rules (aka bylaws or articles) to specifically prohibit growing of invasive weeds on unit areas for just this sort of reason. Even without such a rule, most would have generic rules that prohibits activities that interfere with the reasonable use an enjoyment of common property or require maintenance of the unit.
Having an invasive plant that runs out into the common property could be argued to be a breach of the rules. Similarly, being so messy as to detract from the appearance and enjoyment of the common property could be argued, perhaps.
I have encountered examples of complaints about general mess that I don’t find reasonable. There is a great deal of range in people’s tolerance and variety in what offends one person’s eye but not another person’s.
Is there a reason? Is the messy person elderly or unwell and unable to maintain the garden as well as he or she might like?
The tall bamboo blocking views would be a breach of our rule (by-law): “A unit owner must not use the unit, or permit it to be used, in a way that causes, or will cause, or may grow to cause, a nuisance or substantial annoyance to an owner, occupier or user of another unit.”
That is slightly tweaked from the ACT default rule but I expect other states have something very similar. It seems you could use this to go to the tribunal for an order to clean up. In the ACT ignoring a breach notice is itself an offence, perhaps elsewhere also. Issuing a breach notice requires following a particular process and inclusion of particular details set out in the Act.
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