A family friend in Rustenburg had a neighbour whose dog crapped in his yard. This carried on an on and he spoke to the owner nicely a couple of times. He go gatvol one Sunday afternoon and tossed a shovelload of dog turd over the vibacrete wall. The neighbour was having a braai and had friends over. Seems the shovelload landed in the braai. The dog now craps in his own yard!
MENTAL PICTURE!Originally Posted by adrianh
Just because there are some dumb people that take advantage of the rules does not mean that we are all like that. We work from home therefor know if our pets are barking and there are walls all the way around the complex so it is impossible for our dog to crap in someone else s garden. Lastly I asked for legal advise not opinions, body corps act on opinions which is why pets are being outlawed from most compex's. The extreme examples here are not the norm and are not helping me out. By law, as far as I know (unless things have changed) you cannot change the law on speculation or presumtion that something will happen... I feel like I am talking to a bunch of people who are most likely on body corps trying to justify their lawless ways... I need facts people
This generalization is what is the problem, not all pet owners are idiots who don't follow the rules. The rules clearly state in most cases that your pet "Must not be a nuisance" , if your pet is crapping in yards, barking etc then they are a nuisance... however not all pets are a nuisance so you cant just generalize and make assumptions.Bottom line, from my experience, in a complex the pet owners care more about their own pets than about the rights of anyone else. I was bought up that you had some common decency and consideration for others - not a "f*&k you" attitude.
The most common rule is no new pets allowed, but existing pets may remain until they pass on, with no replacements.
Corporate body has the power - but they propose rules, which the owners vote and accept. These are then lodged with the relative Departments, and become binding.
Body corporates have pretty extensive powers to regulate the affairs of sectional title schemes in terms of the Sectional Title Act of 1986 as amended. These powers include things like pet policies.
Bryan, there is a fudamental flaw in your argument i.r.o the municipal bylaws. If the body corporate rules provided for more animals being kept on the premises than provided for in terms of the municipal bylaws, yes you might have a case. But as the body corporate conditions does not exceed the maximum provided for in the bylaws, the body corporate rule is not in contravention of the bylaws.
I seriously suggest you rather take a "soft skills" approach to this and approach the body corporate for a conditional waiver of the rule in your instance. Obviously this would have to be well motivated - perhaps something along the lines that there are already animals on the property, your animals will not cause a disturbance, they are existing pets, you will not be adding more pets to your menagerie, you're a well behaved tenant with a good track record, along with supporting testimonials.
As a side note - I wouldn't recommend that you mention you will be running a business from home - sometimes there are rules about that too. As long as there is no steady stream of "visitors" I doubt it would ever become an issue down the line. (I'm assuming you wouldn't have a steady stream of clients coming to your home in your line anyway).
Last edited by Dave A; 21-Jul-11 at 02:46 PM. Reason: typo
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Yes, I can generalise and make assumptions. I lived in a complex ( of 128 units ) for over 20 years. I now live in a house.
During the 20 years, I saw a steady flow of residents ( tenants and owners ) come and go in that time. In 20 years, I never, ever, saw someone bring in a dog that somebody didn't complain about - and in 99,9% of the cases, with good reason.
Now don't get me wrong - I love pets, but not in a complex.
Every single time ( without fail ) when a complaint was laid, the pet owners took an agressive defensive attitude and refused to either do something about the pets, or remove them from the complex. Lets face it - you wouldn't part with your beloved pet, would you ?
A fine by the body corp was puny and had no effect at all. If you were told you are being fined R50 per month for your pets, you would laugh at them and pay up - and keep the pets.
I think that you'll find that the position is most likely as follows :
1. if you are already in the complex, they can't ( at least not easily ) force you to remove the pets. However, they can fine you, but it does not remove the problem. It just makes you feel justified in keeping the pet because you paid a little extra for it.
2. the only way they can effectively address the problem is to say "no more pets"
3. if "generalising" there generally isn't a pet problem in many complexes, then why the "no new pets" rules that you're seeing so often ? It's because generally, the pet owners don't give a krap about anyone else - at least, not more than they care about their pet.
4. Prevention is better than cure -- the body corps have learnt over the years that they can't cure the pet problem, so rather prevent it with "no new pets"
I understand that you're a pet owner and lover, and really want to move into the complex, but you have to face the facts. You have built neither trust nor credability with the body corp, so in a nut-shell, you'll be painted with the same brush as all the other pet owners that pissed them off enough in the past to make the "no new pets" rules.
Go to a few body corp meetings and put forward your case, and you'll see exactly how irritated the body corp is with pets.
Watching the ships passing by.
Clients do not come to our home
Pet fines in our current complex is between R700 and R1700 (probably why the pets in our complex seem to be well behaved) , of course R50 is not going to do anything.
A thought popped into my head after my last post -
From your point of view these are not new pets. You've already got them
I am aware of body corporates that allow new owners to bring in their current pets, but not replace them or get new ones - essentially relying on the "problem" dying out without being an obstruction to new owners. This often doesn't extend to tenants, though.
In fact, on the subject of "complex" politics, I have a strong suspicion that many body corporates would outlaw tenants if they could and have a owner residents only policy.
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Brilliant!From your point of view these are not new pets. You've already got them.
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