In our block of flats, the majority was hung out to dry

Annual meetings for apartment owners do not typically lend themselves to compelling storytelling, but Shakespeare might not have written a more tragicomic tale than my building’s most recent strata meeting.

It was the largest ever turnout for our AGM. They tend to be small, sleepy affairs. But this time, about 50 residents filed in, drawn by an opportunity to vote on a bylaw amendment that would finally end the ban on drying laundry on balconies and allow us to put out a portable clothes rack.

Nature’s dryer.Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

After some procedural matters, it was time for the results. And it was a nailbiter. As with any strata bylaw change under NSW legislation, this matter was voted on by “special resolution”, where change is possible only if at least 75 per cent of the votes cast support the motion. That is, even if just a quarter of voters oppose the motion, it is defeated.

That tally, to complicate matters, is based on the entitlements allotted to each unit rather than the number of apartment owners voting. And those entitlements are allocated in direct proportion to the market value of each unit, so they reflect people’s share of ownership in common property. Owners of more valuable units are bestowed greater voting power in strata matters. Granted, they also pay higher strata fees.

At first, the results sparked jubilation. The facilitator revealed that, of almost 3500 entitlements counted, more than 2500 had voted for change, with fewer than 900 against. Motion passed, we assumed. At long last, we would be free from the harsh laundry rules.

But then there was tension as a resident challenged the count. The numbers didn’t add up.

Finally, heartbreak. A recount showed that, in fact, 25.8 per cent of entitlements voted against the change, and 74.2 per cent voted for it. The motion failed by the thinnest of whiskers.

As one of the main agitators for change, I was devastated. We lost, so narrowly, despite such an overwhelming majority wanting change. But I was also galvanised to continue community discussions and try again at next year’s AGM.

While I’m cautiously optimistic that it will happen, the bigger problem remains. It should not be legal in the first place for owners’ corporations to impose a blanket ban on such a fundamental human need as drying laundry. Nor is a special resolution vote – giving more say to residents who can afford higher-value homes – a fit-for-purpose mechanism to regulate a housekeeping activity that has wide-ranging health, cost-of-living and climate consequences.

In NSW, model strata bylaws recommend that owners or occupiers of a unit “may hang washing on any part of the lot other than over the balcony railings”. And though owners’ corporations are not obliged to adopt these bylaws, they are legally bound to ensure bylaws are not harsh, unconscionable or oppressive. A blanket ban on balcony laundry, particularly in developments with no secure communal clothes lines, is arguably all three.

It is harsh and oppressive to force apartment dwellers to choose between two terrible options: clothes-wrecking and energy-guzzling dryers or indoor clotheshorses, which are not only cumbersome but a health hazard. Drying washing indoors increases humidity, which encourages mould spores.

These bans are often rooted in the aesthetic preferences of their proponents. At worst, they are sometimes expressed in racist preoccupations about resemblance to “slums” in “Third World countries”. It is unconscionable to force a majority of residents to sacrifice liveability, sustainability and affordability at the altar of “visual appeal”.

It is time that state governments make bans on balcony laundry illegal. Owners’ corporations, or a minority of cashed-up residents, should not be able to hold the wider community to ransom over their aesthetic whims. Stipulations about the height, number and location of clothes racks are reasonable. A blanket ban is not.

It shouldn’t take a lengthy and expensive legal battle to address this gap, as was the case with the battle to strike down strata bylaws banning pets.

The NSW government wants almost 400,000 new homes built in the next five years to address the housing crisis. Most will be flats, not houses, so it needs to make apartment living appealing. Removing oppressive strata bylaws would also be consistent with its stated aim of protecting the rights of NSW’s 2.2 million renters, who have no voting rights at strata AGMs but who – no less than owners – need to dry their laundry. It would also contribute to the Minns government’s aim to cut carbon emissions by 70 per cent by 2035 compared with 2005 levels, and to reach net zero by 2050.

Backward strata bylaws are a stain on our society’s liveability and sustainability. Outlaw them.

Vaidehi Shah is a resident of Summer Hill. She is a communications specialist at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, though these opinions are her own.