Question: In our building, pets aren’t allowed on common property. How can I propose a motion to create a bylaw that changes an unused space into a dog friendly area?
Our current bylaws do not allow pets in any common areas. We have a large common area in our complex that has never really been used. It is not easily accessible and some lot owners do not know this area exists.
How can I propose a motion to create a bylaw that changes the unused space into a dog friendly area?
Answer: There are a number of aspects you might consider to help ensure your motion is successful, or at least reasonably considered.
All owners are entitled to make submissions for consideration to either committee or general meetings. So, at a basic level all that is required is to draft the requisite motion and submit it to the secretary, usually via the body corporate manager, for it to be voted on at the next relevant meeting.
In practice, there are a number of aspects you might consider to help ensure your motion is successful, or at least reasonably considered.
Immediately, it is worth noting that the Queensland Government has announced it will be changing legislation to make pet ownership in strata schemes easier. For now that is about all we know, but the presumption is that the change will be coming in sooner rather than later and whatever changes are made will have an impact on your current by-laws. As the issue doesn’t seem urgent, you might take a wait and see approach as the matter may resolve itself or become clearer in the near future.
Otherwise, changing a by-law will require approval at a general meeting, most likely by a special resolution. We don’t know the wording of your current by-law, but you say that it states that pets aren’t allowed on common property. If so you might want to consider whether that law is reasonable or enforceable. Perhaps sections of the by-law may need to be repealed. Maybe, the by-law just needs to be altered – sometimes there are clauses that say pets must be carried on common property so maybe the wording just needs to be changed. Or it might be that a completely new pets by-law is required.
Whether you are changing the existing by-law or drafting a new one, it is best for this work to be done by a specialist strata solicitor to ensure that any new by-law is valid and enforceable. You can engage a solicitor individually, but the work they do comes at a cost so most people prefer the legal fees are paid by the body corporate, as the by-law affects all owners.
On that basis, the best thing to do is contact the committee and ask if they would like to pursue the idea – you can offer to assist with the legwork if that helps. Start by sending an email outlining your proposal to the committee via the body corporate manager or straight to the secretary. Different buildings will run in different ways, so see what the response is and follow up from there. To make the matter concrete, you may need to submit a committee motion. This is a formal motion that must be voted on by the committee to determine the course of action. The motion can propose that the committee engage a body corporate solicitor to draft a proposal to amend the current pet by-laws to allow for pets to be on the common area. You could contact a law firm in advance for a quote to do the work and submit this with the motion. It’s probably a good idea to start thinking through factors such as whether the area is safe for pets and how you might handle issues such as pet safety and waste if animals did start using the area.
If the committee agree, then great. The lawyer can be engaged, provided costs are within the committee spending limit, and they can draft a relevant motion ready to be put to owners at the next general meeting.
If the committee don’t agree, you can still pursue the matter individually. However, it is probably worth getting an understanding of why people were against the idea. To have a new by-law passed, you will need at least two-thirds of owners attending a vote to agree with the proposal. If the committee don’t agree with the plan, that could be a tough ask. It may just be that while you like the idea, others don’t and you have to accept majority rule.
If you want to go it alone, you could engage a solicitor to draft the relevant motions for you and submit those to the next general meeting. Owners can vote and a decision can be made.
A cheaper option, or one that allows you to test the waters a bit further before incurring a cost, might be to submit a more generic motion requesting that the body corporate engage a solicitor to draft the relevant motion to change the by-laws. The proposal to do this would be by ordinary resolution and if passed would give a good indication that owners were in favour of the idea. The problem with this method is that it is the long way around. You have to wait for a general meeting to have the motion considered and then wait for the next general meeting after that for the by-law proposal to actually be voted on. Depending on how often your scheme has meetings you could be the best part of two years away from having the matter formally considered. If possible it is better to build a consensus through the committee first.
Lastly, one alternative that may be available is that you could ask the committee to run an informal poll of the body corporate to see if the idea has support. Lots of body corporate management companies have technology that allows this kind of question to be put to owners fairly easily and even if the response isn’t a formal one, it can be a quick way of taking the temperature of the body corporate and thereby give the incentive to the committee to carry the idea forward.
The BCCM website has more info on making a submission to your body corporate.
This post appears in Strata News #644.
William Marquand Tower Body Corporate E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au P: 07 5609 4924