9 MARCH 2021 - OCN Statement On 1 March 2021, NCAT senior member R C Titterton OAM handed down a decision in the matter of McGregor v The Owners – Strata Plan Nº 74896. The building in which Mr McGregor and his partner live is part of a complex in Camperdown where each of the individual stratas is required to comply with the by-laws of the Community Management Statement for [...]
13 OCTOBER 2020 Listen to a radio segment recording from ABC Radio Sydney including an interview with Karen Stiles, Executive Officer of OCN, discussing pets in strata. ABC Radio Sydney, Breakfast with Robbie Buck & Wendy Harmer.
13 OCTOBER 2020 A legal challenge to overturn a ban on keeping pets in apartments in NSW will have unintended consequences, strata owner advocates warn. The NSW Court of Appeal ruled blanket bans on pets in apartments were unlawful. Owners Corporation Network executive officer Karen Stiles warned the ruling would have far-reaching implications. “Strata is one of the fastest growing forms of housing. “Australians don’t seem to understand that along with [...]
13 OCTOBER 2020 This little doggie in the window’s big court win means pets are now allowed in Sydney apartments. Jo Cooper has won a four-and-a-half-year legal battle to keep her miniature schnauzer Angus in her Darlinghurst Horizon unit block. The pair overcame the building’s blanket pet ban after a unanimous ruling in the NSW Court of Appeal. The Court overturned blanket bans on pets being allowed in any apartment building [...]
OCN MEDIA RELEASE: 15 September 2020 The Owners Corporation Network (OCN) is calling on the NSW opposition and cross bench to withdraw their support for a controversial law threatening to destabilise the strata system – robbing people who live in apartments of the ability to set their own bylaws. Legislation amended by the Animal Justice Party (AJP) and set for possible debate this fortnight, will allow people to bring pets [...]
13 SEPTEMBER 2020 It's the dog fight that has captivated Sydney - or at least a small part of it - and this month it will command the attention of the state's peak lawmaking bodies: the Parliament and the Supreme Court. For five years, musician Jo Cooper has battled the strata committee of her apartment block, the Horizon, which stands tall among the terraces of inner-city Darlinghurst. Her quest: to keep [...]
OCN MEDIA RELEASE: 13 September 2020 The comfort and safety of more than one million NSW residents in apartment buildings is at risk, with a shock amendment to legislation threatening to shake the strata system to its core. Last month a minor political party snuck an amendment through the NSW Upper House which effectively allows apartment dwellers to keep pets even if it’s against the building’s bylaws: 137B Keeping of [...]
26 AUGUST 2020 It could soon be near-impossible for any apartment building to vote to keep pets out after a last-minute amendment to an unrelated bill scored a shock win in the NSW Legislative Council just before 10pm on Tuesday night. The move by the Animal Justice Party (AJP) means that, if the bill is passed by the Lower House in September, no strata scheme will be allowed to have a [...]
22 AUGUST 2020 The day her miniature schnauzer urinated in the lobby of her luxury Sydney apartment block is one of the most traumatic of Jo Cooper’s 30-plus years. There is never a good time for a dog to wee in a lavish foyer, although Cooper insists it’s not much different to the coffee and salad spillages she has witnessed over five years of living in the award-winning, officially pet-free building. [...]
27 May 2020 Two of Sydney’s biggest apartment towers have won their battle to ban owners’ pets from their buildings in a verdict that will have far-reaching repercussions for NSW strata residents. The 260-apartment Horizon in Darlinghurst and the 280-unit Elan in Kings Cross had lost the right in previous cases before the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) to enforce their bylaws to keep their premises animal free. But, now [...]
Owners Corporation Network
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