An Aussie renter has expressed their shock at being told they can’t dry their washing on their own balcony and questioned whether the strata warning they received was entirely legal.
The renter, who leases an apartment in Queensland, said they were “honestly shocked” after receiving a notice from the body corporate telling them to stop drying clothes on the balcony because it looked “untidy”.
The renter said they had believed air-drying the washing to be the responsible thing to do before receiving the notice.
The Queensland renter was shocked to be told what they were doing with their washing was wrong.
“Like many Australians, I’m trying to keep electricity bills down and thought hanging washing outside was completely normal,” they told Yahoo News.
“It feels ridiculous that something as everyday as drying clothes could suddenly become an issue, especially during a cost-of-living crisis.
“I understand apartment living comes with rules, but this feels more about appearance than practicality.”
While it might seem commonsense to everyday Aussies that the renter’s body corporate has overreacted and overstepped, it turns out the apartment complex’s strata committee may have acted well within Queensland laws on the matter.
Maurice Blackburn legal expert Jillian Barrett said the act of clothes drying in apartment buildings was a common issue that could fall into a grey area when it came to strata laws.
With apartment living on the rise, Aussies have limited space to dry their washing. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift
“It’s a surprisingly common apartment frustration. You’re trying to do something completely normal and cost-effective, and suddenly it’s treated like a rule breach,” Ms Barrett told Yahoo News.
“A Queensland body corporate can regulate how you dry clothes on your balcony, but it can’t go so far that the rule becomes unreasonable or effectively stops ordinary living.”
The Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 stipulates how apartment by-laws in Queensland are formulated and managed.
The standard by-laws under the act make specific reference to washing on balconies, stating the “occupier of a lot must not, without the body corporate’s written approval – hang washing, bedding, or another cloth article if the article is visible from another lot or the common property or from outside the scheme land”.
The grey area comes in play when the Act states by-laws must not be oppressive or unreasonable.
The iconic Australian Hills hoist is slowly disappearing along with traditional yards.
With those two points in mind, Ms Barrett said body corporates can legally control things like banning items from being hung over balcony railings, the keeping of drying clothes below the height of balcony railings, and banning washing that is visible from outside.
Body corporates that issue bans which make it impossible to dry clothes at all are crossing the line into oppressive and unreasonable.
Ms Barrett encouraged the Queensland renter to look over their building’s by-laws to see exactly what their drying actions have been considered to have breached.
She said the renter could try a drying work around to avoid further conflict, raise the issue directly with the building strata committee or formally challenge the notice through the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management in Queensland.
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