Strata schemes with 'no pets' rules are now on notice because the NSW Court of Appeal has decided that 'no pets' by-laws must be consigned to the dustbin of history.
The appeal court's decision was about "Angus", a miniature schnauzer dog, which had the fortune/misfortune of living in The Horizon, a luxury apartment tower of 43 levels in Darlinghurst, Sydney. "Angus" was a well-behaved dog, well suited to apartment living.
The strata scheme had always had a 'no pets' strata by-law, ever since it was built in 1998.
But over the years, community standards have changed in favour of keeping pets in apartments. As a result, in 2016, the NSW State Government decided to change its model strata by-laws to exclude the 'no pets' option that had been in available since 1997. The only options that remain for 'pet' by-laws are either to allow owners and occupiers to keep pets without restriction or to restrict how the pets are to be kept, their breed and size.
The owners in The Horizon decided not to replace their 'no pets' by-law with a restrictive 'pet friendly' by-law, despite the changes in community attitudes and the model strata by-laws.
This was never going to end well. When Angus' owner decided to challenge the validity of the 'no pets' by-law all the way from NCAT to the NSW Court of Appeal, they succeeded in having the by-law struck down and the owners corporation being ordered to pay their legal fees.
As a result, if your strata scheme has a 'no pets' by-law it must replace it with a 'pet friendly' by-law, with or without restrictions.
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