North Shore Realty
Real Estate Sunshine Coast

Recent decisions made by the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) have had a huge impact
on Bodies Corporate and their current by-laws. A number of appeals to the QCAT have resulted in the tribunal
overturning by-laws which had a blanket ban on cats and dogs or by-laws which are seen to be too restrictive.
Subsequent to these decisions, adjudicators from this office have determined that by-laws with arbitrary
restrictions on the number of pets or that impose blanket bans are unreasonable and have ordered that the bylaws
be either removed or changed. Adjudicator’s consider that it is reasonable to require pet owners to obtain
committee approval to keep a pet and for the body corporate to apply reasonable conditions on the keeping of
pets.
Naturally, if any pet does cause a nuisance to other occupiers then the committee can seek to have it removed
from the scheme. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? Committees should seek quite strategic advice if they are about
to refuse occupancy to a pet. Simply following the by-laws is no longer enough (so what good are they I hear
you say?). You must have considerable background on the pet and be refusing on very strategic reasons.
At North Shore Body Corporate we have dealt with many of these cases and
we are happy to assist and give any advice to owners at any time by calling
07 5448 8725 or cath@northshorebodycorp.com.au