Question: If lot owners pay a breach of notice fine and keep the pet without complying, can they be fined again?
Answer: They can be fined again. At the moment, it’s not clear what the extra penalty can be.
They can be fined again. At the moment, it’s not clear what the extra penalty can be.
If the $11,100 fine is imposed on the owner for breaching a notice to comply, and the owner continues to breach the relevant bylaw, you can go back to NCAT to get a penalty of up to $2,200 imposed for a repeat offence.
What’s not clear, however, is how the new laws I spoke about earlier are going to work. Those are the laws that will give NCAT power to impose a $5500 penalty for a breach of its ordinance.
You go the extra mile, you take somebody to NCAT, you get an order for them to remove their barking dog from the building, they ignore the order, you go back to NCAT again (incurring more time and costs) you get a penalty imposed, it probably won’t be the maximum of $5500 because that’s reserved for the most serious cases, and still nothing happens, and still you have to put up with the barking dog every day and night what can you do.
It’s not clear under these new laws, whether you’ll be able to go back to NCAT and seek a further penalty. I suspect the answer is: it will be possible for you to do that. The maximum penalty for a repeat offence will still be $5500 but I dare say NCAT would be inclined to probably impose a more severe penalty on a repeat offender.
The question of course remains, is that more severe penalty going to be enough to get rid of the problem?
This post appears in Strata News #493.
Adrian Mueller
JS Mueller & Co Lawyers
E: adrianmueller@muellers.com.au
P: 02 9562 1266
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