With strata laws being overhauled, Pet owners are the winners

When New South Wales apartment complexes were reluctantly adapting to the era of pet ownership, some ingenious strata schemes devised strategies to discourage animals from residing within their premises.

One approach involved imposing non-refundable application fees, while others insisted on demanding punitive security deposits to cover potential damage or defacement of common areas.

Furthermore, certain schemes mandated extra insurance coverage to address potential repairs and even legal expenses. However, changes in New South Wales legislation are set to eliminate these deterrents to pet ownership.

The state's parliament is currently contemplating revisions to strata laws, which include a prohibition on charging owners fees or bonds for owning a pet. This pet-related provision will fall under the purview of a newly appointed strata commissioner, whom we will delve into later.

At present, the policy experts at New South Wales Fair Trading and Customer Services have cherry-picked the most accessible recommendations from the 2021 strata law review conducted by the previous government. Among the proposed changes recently presented in Parliament, owners engaged in disputes over the collective sale of strata properties will be obliged to declare conflicts of interest.

If they oppose the redevelopment of an aging complex because they lost in a bidding war, they could risk having legal costs awarded against them. Currently, the majority of owners end up shouldering the expenses incurred by disgruntled developers who own units in the building but were unsuccessful in their property development efforts.

Under the proposed changes, when strata schemes exhibit severe dysfunction, Fair Trading will have the authority to apply for the mandatory appointment of strata managers to take control of management from the owners' corporations and strata committees. Presently, only owners possess this prerogative, but they may feel too intimidated or lack the expertise to initiate such proceedings. Moreover, all schemes, irrespective of size, will be required to obtain at least two price quotes for any work exceeding $30,000 in cost.

Lastly, New South Wales now boasts a new strata commissioner, with the recent appointment of John Minns, who currently serves as the Property Services Commissioner.