Pets in apartment buildings: warning! Yours may not be allowed.

Apartment Specialists Podcast No: 143

Summary:

Many apartment building do not allow pets and if they do allow pets yours may not necessarily be permitted. This is due it being a Body Corporate committee decision. If you move in with the assumption of your pet’s being allowed without permission, you may then be looking at the difficult decision of not having your pet in the building or moving elsewhere. You must get Body Corporate decision prior to occupancy. Some Body Corporates may have rules in regards to size, type of animal and so on, please check this prior to signing your purchase agreement or have a clause that stipulates your particular pet is allowed.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Andrew Murray from the Apartment Specialists. Today we will be talking about pets. And this is a big warning! Just because a building has pets in it, or it has allowed the pets to be in it, it does not mean that your pet will be accepted. Now I have just had a situation where I spoke to the chairman about a purchaser who had a pet.  I asked them and I said, "I have got a purchaser who has got two small dogs,"and the chairman said, "Yeah, it should be fine."

So I relayed this back to the purchaser and told them to read the body corporate minutes. In the body corporate minutes it says, "Pets are allowed if you go and once they have been approved by the body corporate committee." Anyway, the apartment was sold and then they did not actually apply to the committee. They just moved in with their pets, and then after that someone complained. They decided to put in an application and the committee changed their mind.

The other dog that was in the complex passed away and the committee decided to change the rules. Moving forward, they do not allow pets in the building. Now imagine if this was you; this should be gutting. So just make sure, before you purchase an apartment that you actually put a condition in there.

Make sure it is approved before the purchase goes through and this is really important. For example, I had another one where the committee decided that pets over 30 centimetres high were not allowed. This particular pet was 40 centimetres high and was not allowed. I have just got to make sure that you really get this through. If you have got a pet and you are looking for an apartment that allows pets, even if there are pets in the building, make sure that you put a condition in your seller purchase agreement making sure the committee actually approves your pet.

Anyway, I hope that helps. And this is Condos as I said. From Apartment Specialists, goodbye, Andrew Murray.

Cheers!