My Building’s Fussy Body Corporate Requirements
November 30th 2008 21:00
Photo by Lilly M. Used in accordance with the terms of Wikimedia Commons’ GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
Given that two of my neighbours in my building own dogs, I naturally assumed pets were allowed by the body corporate. I then thought it was up to the individual landlord/landlady of each unit to then have the final say.
This was until I bumped into one of the members of the body corporate one night. She started telling me animals are not automatically allowed in the building – they had to be small enough to be picked up and each unit was limited to one pet. So much for my dream of owning two Tonkinese or Burmese cats! She then showed me the application form. It asked for the name, sex, breed and type of animal. It also asked whether the animal was desexed and/or microchipped. Finally, it said that if approval was given, the pet was still to be carried when in common areas.
“But what about the two dog owners?” I asked.
“They just went ahead and got their dogs,” she said. “They didn’t even ask body corporate for permission and their landlords decided to okay it anyway.”
She then told me there were a couple of cat owners in the building as well, but the body corporate tended to be more lenient towards approving cats as they were quieter than dogs.
The lady then went on about how people don’t stick by the rules. Having been shown the body corporate rules, I thought they were a little unreasonable. Why should my companion animal be a small one? Why couldn’t I have a large dog if I wanted one? But then again, I am in the fortunate situation of living in a small building which means fewer neighbours which then equals fewer conflicts with them. Unfortunately, part of this equation includes smaller common areas so a large animal could easily block hallways. Maybe that’s why the body corporate pet requirements are so strict. I plan to ask the body corporate lady the next time I see her.
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