Question: A lot owner has had dog faeces thrown from above onto their balcony and the building’s common property. The suspected lot owner denies any knowledge of the act. What can we do?
An owner in our building has developed a nasty habit of disposing of their dog waste into the building’s common property drain.
The lot owner below tried reasoning with the lot owner above about the disposal of the dog faeces but was met with denial and anger. The downstairs lot owner approached the owners corporation (OC) for help. Our owners corporation manager advised the offending lot owner to cease. Within days of the OC’s action, the downstairs owner has had dog faeces thrown all over their balcony furniture. The suspected lot owner denies any knowledge of the act and requests a full investigation.
What can the committee do?
Answer: See below for detailed steps taken to successfully resolve a similar situation.
This sounds like a tricky situation. I dealt with something similar recently, so I’ll detail my steps to resolve that situation successfully.
- Write to all owners and post flyers in the common areas, noting that a resident has thrown dog faeces on the orientation and floor (i.e. from levels 4-6 on the northwest side of the building), and the OC requires assistance catching the perpetrator. You could note how disgusted the committee and residents are and that the OC intends to take whatever action it must against the perpetrator. This approach may seem a bit extreme, but it’s likely to get the offender’s attention, plus it’s an indirect way of ‘naming and shaming’. The OC is narrowing it down to a subset of units without specifying one, and residents will probably figure it out for themselves.
- If the above doesn’t work, arrange an inspection of all units along the relevant side of the building to confirm who has pets and to assess the ‘waste management’ system in place. This is a useful step to document evidence should the matter escalate further.
- As the last step, you could write to owners advising that the OC has engaged a DNA testing company to examine the faeces and that the OC would require a swab of pets to confirm which animal the faeces is coming from.
For my recent situation, steps 1 and 2 got the perpetrator’s attention, but it was not until step 3 that the issue ceased.
If you get to step 3 and the issue continues, you should seek legal advice to find out if the OC has the power to swab of pets. This was essentially an empty threat from the committee I worked with.
If you are still unable to resolve the issue, seek further legal advice for how to address the matter.
This post appears in Strata News #707/a>.
Callum Wilson The Strata Shepherd E: info@thestratashepherd.com.au P: 0431 925 908