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A new by-law has been introduced banning children under 16 from using the lap pool.
I (and many others) believe this is unreasonable and discriminatory.
No minutes have been provided where this was proposed or carried. As long as kids are supervised or can swim without supervision, then I don’t see why they can’t use the pool. How can we challenge this?
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When you say there were no minutes, was there a proper general meeting with an agenda?
Also, the model by-laws say this:
8 Children playing on common property(1) Any child for whom an owner or occupier of a lot is responsible may play on any area of the common property that is designated by the owners corporation for that purpose but may only use an area designated for swimming while under adult supervision.
So is this ban on all kids, regardless of whether or not they are being supervised?
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
Here is an idea:
1) Make sure you have your request for evidence of a registered by-law, minutes of a meeting and a proper notice of that meeting in writing.
2) Get together with the parents or carers of other children and organise to supervise your children using the pool responsibly on a regular schedule. Make sure you are compliant with the model by-law quoted by JT, even if it does not apply to your site. It shows what the legislators regarded as reasonable.
3) See what happens. Perhaps nothing.
4) If you are issued with a notice to comply with the by-law, reiterate your request, in writing, for evidence that the by-law exists and is valid.
5) If no evidence is forthcoming, continue the above cycle.
6) If it turns out the by-law was adopted by a properly constituted meeting and registered, investigate further whether it can be thrown out by the Tribunal as harsh and unreasonable and substituted with the model by-law, which the Tribunal should accept as reasonable, or attempt to get the same outcome by putting a motion to a general meeting.
What are they storing in there? The crown jewels?
Perhaps you could get around it if one of a coalition of parents and carers did register their fingerprint and that person lets the rest of you through before the door closes. If you end up at the Tribunal, you can add in unreasonable restriction of access to the common property – requiring biometric data for access without evidence of adequate data security.
questiontime10 wrote
I don’t consent to my fingerprints being collected (they don’t even have a biometric collection policy yet) so I doubt Security will let us in.
That’s not what they’re saying. But a little organised disruption might be in order. A large number of you could individually ask for access every five minutes or so.
As far as the by-laws go, as Sir Humphrey said, there is a process …
- There should have been an agenda with both the pool restrictions and the security listed as motions.
- Then there should have been a meeting at which 75 per cent of votes were in favour.
- Then the minutes should have been distributed within 14 days.
- Meanwhile, the by-laws should have been registered with the Registrar-General and have no effect until they are.
FYI the Australian Privacy Act says that an “entity that holds personal information must take reasonable steps to protect the information from misuse, interference and loss, as well as unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.” So you may be on to something there.
But first, see if there is a paper trail, as described above, then work out what your next step will be from that. But I think that at the very least keeping supervised kids out of the pool is pretty much guaranteed to fall over at NCAT if challenged.
Keeping them out of the pool with no adult on hand (pardon the pun) will be a lot easier.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
Once somebody is in (say a parent without a child) can they open the door from the inside to let others through (say another parent with several children in tow)?
As this is a lap-pool associated with a gym, I can see how an argument might be made that this is a pool for serious training and not a recreational pool or designed for children. However, I would counter that with 1) Some children could be training seriously, eg. for school or other competitions, 2) Children’s water play is important for learning water safety and could lead to a sporting and general fitness interest in swimming, 3) Children are residents too, with a right to use and enjoyment of the common property.
A fear from serious users of a training pool might be that they won’t be able to use it because it is full of kids. A reasonable solution would be to have designated, child-friendly times for recreational use and other times designated for training, perhaps with a booking system.
Well, there you go. Examples of children using the pool for highly virtuous purposes. I can imagine rhetorical flourishes in mediation about the risk of unwittingly thwarting a child who could one day have become our next Great Aussie Sporting Legend Olympian Swimming Champion. Clearly banning kids from the pool is ‘unAustralian’! [To be delivered in one’s best Roy and HG voice!]
That’s how by-laws are created under the terms of the Strata Schemes Management Act. Does your committee operate under its own set of laws?
Have they explained how they (whoever “they” are) think it works? Do they think they can just issue edicts and ban residents from areas of common property?
Even if there is a catch-all by-law that says access to the pool could be controlled by decisions of the committee, as and when required, those decision would still have to be on a strata committee agenda, voted on and minuted.
So, what do your by-laws say, exactly? (please, the exact wording)
If there is no by-law regarding access to the pool, then the committee and/or managers are going way beyond their remit.
If there is a by-law, then it should establish the rules in writing so that everyone knows what they are.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
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