I rent an apartment in Sydney and, like in many places I’ve rented before, I’m forbidden from hanging my wet clothes on my balcony because it’s “unsightly”. I’m a good bylaw-abiding resident – I air-dry items indoors – but it irks me that I can’t make use of a sunny afternoon to dry my washing. My neighbours seem to feel the same way because our building manager emails reminders about it most weeks. We have a dryer but using it feels like a climate crime, not to mention expensive. Is there anything I can do to sidestep this rule?
– Emma, New South Wales
Kat George says: It’s really frustrating to be living in a strata building where what you can and can’t do with your living space is dictated to you by property owners who may not even live there. As a renter living in strata property, you need to follow rules, known as bylaws, which are set by the owners (the owners corporation or body corporate). Different states have different rules. In New South Wales more than 1.2 million people (one in seven) live in strata buildings, so you’re not alone in this vexation.
Laundry is particularly contentious in strata buildings. As you rightly point out, air- and sun-drying clothes is greener and cheaper than using a dryer. In small apartments using a dryer or air-drying inside can also raise humidity levels. This contributes to damp and mould, which pose health risks too.
The rules about what you can and can’t do on your balcony can be blurry. In 2016, recognising the issues with laundry, the NSW government updated the Strata Schemes Management Regulation. The regulation includes model bylaws, which an owners corporation can adopt (and amend, if they wish) for ease, rather than creating their own from scratch.
The updated regulation includes a model bylaw allowing tenants to hang laundry on communal washing lines provided by the owners corporation, or on any part of the lot other than over balcony railings (which poses a safety risk if something falls). Both of these options are for a “reasonable period”.
The catch is that for this bylaw to apply, your owners corporation has to have adopted it.
The first thing you should do is seek out your building’s bylaws. The bylaws are registered with NSW Land Registry Services and your landlord or their agent is required to give you a copy before you sign your lease. If you weren’t given the bylaws, your landlord/agent can be fined and it can be grounds for you to end your tenancy. If you were given the bylaws but can’t find them, you can request a new copy.
When you have the bylaws, look up what they say about laundry. If your building has adopted the model bylaws, you can act accordingly and hang laundry on your balcony as long as it’s for a “reasonable” amount of time – for instance, bringing it in once it’s dry rather than leaving it there for a week.
If the bylaws are silent on laundry, you may have a strong case for hanging laundry on your balcony anyway.
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Often, owners corporations make what the Tenants’ Union refers to as “house rules”, which they expect tenants to follow. But if these rules aren’t codified and registered with NSW Land Registry Services as bylaws they are not lawful. An owners corporation can’t expect you to follow rules about the building unless they have registered those rules.
If you find that the bylaws do, in fact, prohibit you from hanging laundry on your balcony, you might be in for a battle. It is possible to change bylaws but, as a renter, it may be harder to convince the owners corporation to do so.
Start by deciding what you want to achieve: do you want to be able to dry clothes on your balcony, or would you be happy with a designated communal drying space if there is somewhere in the building that could accommodate one? Put your proposal in writing and letterbox your neighbours to get the ball rolling.
If you know of any owners living in the building, chat to them. They’ll be your best advocates in owners corporation meetings if you get them onside.
The NSW government website has a step-by-step guide to changing bylaws, so you can see what’s involved. You’ll want to put your proposal in writing to the owners corporation, so the more work you do for them upfront the better. Provide them with your reasoning, the changes that need to be made and a petition from tenants. You can even draft your preferred bylaw addition or amendment, or suggest the phrasing from the model bylaws.
The owners corporation will need to discuss the proposed change at their next general meeting – which, unfortunately, is likely to be an annual affair. Some owners corporations may have interim decision-making mechanisms like committees, so it’s still worth getting your request in quickly.
Submit your proposal to your landlord or their agent and, if you know the details of the owners corporation, you can submit them directly too. This information can normally be found on a plaque somewhere at the front of your building.
For what it’s worth, this is a live issue. Between renters living in strata buildings, lawyers and consumer advocates, a coalition has formed to apply pressure to the government and landlords. This is starting to bring about change. That is to say, even if you don’t succeed this time, it’s highly likely that eventually, things will change.
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