Question: Our owners corporation are repealing the current by-law from requiring written permission to keep pets to Prohibiting the Keeping of Animals.
We just received the AGM motions for this year’s meeting and surprisingly the owners corporation are repealing the current by-law from requiring written permission to keep pets to the below:
By Law XX – Prohibiting the Keeping of Animals:
An owner or occupier of a lot must not bring or keep any animal on the lot or the common property.
An owner or occupier of a lot must not permit any person including any invitee of the owner or occupier to bring or keep an animal on the lot of the common property.
This by-law does not prohibit or restrict the keeping on a lot of assistance animal used by an owner or occupier of the lot as an assistance animal or the use of an assistance animal for that purposes by a person on a lot or common property.
Answer: The proposed pets by-law is not likely to be enforceable due a recent case which says that a by-law banning pets is harsh and unenforceable.
If the building is in NSW, the proposed pets by-law that will be considered at the AGM is not likely to be enforceable due to the Court of Appeal decision in the Cooper case which says that a by-law banning pets is harsh and unenforceable.
This post appears in the March 2021 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.
Adrian Mueller
JS Mueller & Co Lawyers
E: adrianmueller@muellers.com.au
P: 02 9562 1266
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