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Topic
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Our complex is in NSW and Strata Plan was registered in August 1997. Many years ago our Owners Corporation voted a No Animal By-Law, this resolved many problems and was again voted on about 8 years ago with the current By-Law that was registered, “Subject to Section 49 (4 ) of Strata Schemes Management Act of 1996 (guide or hearing dogs) an Owner or Occupier of a lot must not keep any animal on the Lot or Common Property” .
We have not added/deleted/changed any By-Laws since that time as what we have seems to work well for our complex of 64 units.
We have now been told we have to change this to comply with new By-Law 16 and select either option A or B of that By-Law. Is that correct? We were under the impression that as we had written our own by-laws that did not contradict and complied with “Model Rules” we would be able to keep our existing By-Laws.
Our Strata Manager says we will will need to change because if By-Law was challenged in the future our Strata Plan would loose at any NCAT hearing.
Any clarification or advice would be appreciated, this topic was raised at our last AGM in an informal manner (as it was not on Agenda) 57 of 64 units were represented in person (no proxies) and 55 voted to retain current By-Law.
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I don’t think the advice given to you by your Strata Manager is correct.
If you refer to: https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/sites/ftw/Tenants_and_home_owners/Strata_schemes/Bylaws_in_your_strata_scheme.page
It states:
Model by-laws
The Strata Schemes Management Regulation 2016 includes a set of model by-laws which provide ‘sample rules’ to guide the owners corporation in setting their own by-laws. Owners corporations can choose to adopt these or make changes to better suit their circumstances to manage issues in strata like overcrowding, pets, parking, and smoke drift. Schemes are not required to adopt or adapt any of the model by-laws, they are available to assist schemes in reviewing and making by-laws to suit their scheme. Model by-laws cannot be the by-laws for your scheme unless they are first formally adopted by the owners corporation and registered with the Office of the Registrar-General. (emphasis added)
However your strata must review their by-laws by 30 November 2017. Your strata may choose to use the new Model by-laws or keep their old ones.
Our strata recently reviewed our ByLaws and decided to adopt the new model ones (Item 5 on pets we selected option B, item 9 on smoking option A).
I hope this information helps …. From the Office of Fair Trading web site: All strata schemes must review their by-laws by 30 November 2017. NB: It appears that your Scheme has already reviewed your By-laws at your last AGM thereby complying with this requirement.
Owners can adopt a model by-law as their own or make their own by-law.
Owners corporations can choose to adopt these model by-laws or make changes to better suit their circumstances to manage issues in strata like overcrowding, pets, parking, and smoke drift. Schemes are not required to adopt or adapt any of the model by-laws, they are available to assist schemes in reviewing and making by-laws to suit their scheme. Model by-laws cannot be the by-laws for your scheme unless they are first formally adopted by the owners corporation and registered with the Office of the Registrar-General.
Model By-Laws are here:
https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/regulation/2010/492/sch2
Hi, we are a 1971 Strata, by laws updated in 1996, we had a look at the “no pet” by-law and decided it was too loose, ie is a working dog a pet ? What if they are taking care of some one else’s pet? Or if it is visiting with an owner ? So we decided on
16 Keeping of animals Subject to section 157 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, an owner or occupier of a lot must not without the approval in writing of the owners corporation keep or allow any animal on the lot or the common property.
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