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Our strata plan has had a special by-law added to the standard by-laws to prevent owners or occupiers from keeping animals. It reads:
'No animals are permitted, with the exception of a guide dog or hearing dog'.
I can understand dogs can be a nuisance, but are there any avenues open for me to be able to keep an indoor cat in my lot? The cat would never leave my lot or set foot on common property.
What are my options?
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I don't know what the current situation is, but I got permission to keep a cat within my unit by taking the matter to the Tribunal (or whatever it is called these days). My argument was that, if I kept the cat entirely within my unit, it could not be regarded as a nuisance to others. The Tribunal initially denied my argument, but did a complete backflip when told that the space within the unit was mine alone, and so the proceedings within it were mine alone. I also hinted at the time that I might take action for having been misled in buying a strata unit, in that the by-law (at that time anyway) said that permission could not be unreasonably withheld. The Owners stated that a cat might stink up the place, but I replied that garbage would do the same thing if, for example, it were left lying around inside a unit, and that there would be an option in either case for them to take action. My cat never set foot outside of the door, and did not seem to mind at all. The balcony was a bit of a different issue, as I think it was officially common property, but you would have to check on the present guidelines.
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:
- Just keep your pet cat inside your Unit and say nothing.
- 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)
- 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.
villageidiot said:
Our strata plan has had a special by-law added to the standard by-laws to prevent owners or occupiers from keeping animals. It reads:
'No animals are permitted, with the exception of a guide dog or hearing dog'.
I can understand dogs can be a nuisance, but are there any avenues open for me to be able to keep an indoor cat in my lot? The cat would never leave my lot or set foot on common property.
What are my options?
Have a look at the posts under the topic “Pets Banned Mid Purchase”.
Especially have a look at the potential persuasive precedents from the High Court cases.
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