Owners’ corporations are forcing residents to carry their pets across foyers, demanding their vets’ contact details and charging new owners application fees for animals in response to recent legal changes regarding pets in apartments.
Meanwhile, emboldened pet owners are openly flouting by-laws banning animals in the wake of Horizon building resident Jo Cooper’s high-profile victory against a “blanket ban” on pets at the Darlinghurst tower, which was found to be unreasonable.
Jo Cooper and her pet schnauzer Angus in her Darlinghurst apartment. Credit: Louise Kennerley
The October judgment in the Court of Appeal also provided a more general ruling; that a by-law can be harsh and oppressive if it limits the ability of an owner to use their property on a basis that has no connection to the impact on other lot owners.
Owners’ corporations are now ditching blanket bans but imposing highly onerous conditions and application processes for prospective residents.
One building in the North Sydney area posted a new 25-clause by-law allowing owners to keep an animal with permission from the owners’ corporation, but imposing a litany of stringent rules. Pets cannot walk on the carpet in common areas and must be “carried over” instead, and cannot be left unattended on any balcony, terrace or courtyard.
Sharon Levy of Bartier Perry Lawyers - which acted for Ms Cooper and advises lot owners, strata schemes and managing agents - said the rule was a serious imposition for frail, elderly or injured residents.
Jo Cooper holds her dog Angus, and stands with her lawyer Sharon Levy from Bartier Perry Lawyers and barristers Robert Newlinds and Robert Pietriche in the foyer of the prestige apartment tower The Horizon. Credit: Jessica Hromas
Some strata committees are asking for non-refundable application fees of up to $500 for an animal, and bonds of up to $1000. Some are requiring written references about the pets’ behaviour and the contact details of its vet. In one case, the committee required references “from at least two people unrelated to the applicant who have lived in an apartment block with the animal, including one strata committee member, attesting to the fact that the animal is not a nuisance”.
Ms Levy said it was “ludicrous and really disappointing”. “Some of them have acknowledged they need to get rid of the blanket ban but they’re putting in place a draconian application process.”
The state government changed the law last month to say that a by-law (or an owners’ corporation decision under a by-law) cannot prohibit someone keeping a pet unless it unreasonably interferes with another occupant’s use or enjoyment of their property or the common property.
This takes effect in August and the government is developing specific regulations to set out how it will work in practice.
The Altro building in Camperdown’s City Quarter, where dogs are banned but owners can have a cat, bird or goldfish.Credit: Michael Koziol
In the meantime, a ruling by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal on March 1 has created further uncertainty by effectively upholding a by-law in Camperdown’s City Quarter complex that bans dogs but allows cats, goldfish, canaries and budgerigars.
Former television presenter Scott McGregor and his partner Bernadette Eichner bought into the building in February 2020 and told the tribunal they had seen many dogs around the complex. They were informed by a strata manager that while other buildings in the complex were not enforcing the no-dog rule, “Altro is”.
The tribunal dismissed the couple’s bid to keep their dog Jimmy, a 12-year-old miniature fox terrier, chiefly for legal reasons as they had framed their case incorrectly. There was no need to consider the Cooper precedent because that only related to a “blanket ban”.
Bernadette and Scott McGregor with their miniature fox terrier Jimmy. Credit: Peter Rae.
But the defiant couple intends to keep Jimmy despite the ruling. Ms Eichner posted in a Facebook group run by Ms Cooper last week: “Jimmy will be back in our apartment with us tomorrow night when we return to Sydney. Let the games begin!”
Glenn Farquhar, the secretary of the Altro strata committee, said reporting about the Cooper case had “opened a flood gate of hearsay” about what was allowed and what was not, despite the ruling applying only to blanket bans.
“This has resulted in uneducated real estate agents misinforming their clients, owners and tenants that they can now legally bring a dog into any apartment building without consequence,” he said.