Pets in Bodies Corporate

In recent times we have seen an increase in occupants wanting to keep pets within their lots (specifically dogs) and thought it is timely to give owners some suggestions and information on this process, it is important when considering introducing a dog into your environment that you do your research and follow proper process with the Body Corporate. This can help avoid any disputes with the Body Corporate down the track.

Do Your Research Before You Adopt

It is important that some research be done before considering introducing a dog into a building. Here are some things to look into:

1. What breed of dog would be appropriate for your unit complex?
2. Is that breed of dog a barker or digger? And how will you manage this?
3. Do you have the time to spend training the dog to ensure it won’t cause nuisance to other occupants in the building?
4. Is the dog a suitable size for the size of your unit?
5. Will the dog need to be walked daily and/or does it require an outdoor area such as a courtyard?
6. How will the dog’s waste be dealt with?

Follow proper process

Once you’ve considered all of the above you will need to follow proper process to obtain approval from the Body Corporate to keep a pet in the lot. Too often we have seen disputes within schemes where an occupant has not applied to the Body Corporate Committee to keep pets in the scheme or adopted the animal before applying for permission to keep it within the scheme. We would recommend ensuring you have approval in place before introducing an animal into the scheme. We have detailed the process for you below:

1. Contact your body corporate management company and request a pet application form; (if your body corporate is managed by us you can complete this form on our website here).
2. Complete the form and submit it to the body corporate managers with all relevant supporting information as required;
3. The form is then submitted with a motion to the Body Corporate Committee to vote on whether or not they will approve the pet to be kept within the scheme;
4. The turnaround time for the Committee to vote on the matter can depend on their availability but is usually not longer than two weeks;
5. The Committee will generally put strict conditions in place that will need to be adhered to and it is important to consider if you will be able to be comply with all of these conditions.

If you are still unsure, click here to contact us for additional information.