Question: What is the current status of house rules in the ACT? Can house rules be enforced?
What is the current status of house rules in the ACT? Are house rules mentioned in the legislation at all? Can owners corporations have a set of non-registered house rules, or have they been phased out in favour of registered alternative rules?
If house rules lack enforceability, can the executive committee still send letters to residents requesting that they stop activities that violate these rules? Or does this action only become possible if the rule is a registered alternative rule?
Answer: House rules are guidelines that owners corporations can use with their registered rules.
House rules are not addressed in the legislation. They are guidelines that owners corporations can use in conjunction with their registered rules.
Certain items could be included, like hours for swimming pool, days garbage bins go out, type of rubbish in each bin, links to relevant groups, etc.
House rules have never been enforceable in previous or current regulations.
Over the years, units plan owners seem to have used the wording “house rules” when talking about “rules”.
The owners corporation would need to review their current registered rules and consolidate all those registered.
If you are in a fairly simple plan, it is appropriate to start with the default rules and add any other relevant rules to your plan as “alternative rules”.
Several owners corporation establish a sub-committee to develop these documents for special resolution at a general meeting.
It is always advisable for an owners corporation to seek legal advice to assist with writing their rules.
Jan Browne
Bridge Strata
E: jan@bridgestrata.com.au
P: 02 6109 7700
This post appears in Strata News #667.
Our strata plan has no annotations on what is common property. We have obtained an interpretation that it comes under 3(2)a of the Act. We are recording this in the AGM to ensure the complex is correctly managed and to ensure owners are aware. Is this appropriate?