Creating a better future

$5,500 and a year in jail for being environmentally friendly?

Like numerous people around the world I live and rent an apartment in a large city. We do what we can to limit our impact on the environment. We recycle; use green power and I have even got a worm farm to limit our waste.

I also refuse to use the clothes dryer unless it’s an emergency as it is the most power hungry appliance we use and the average dryer is responsible for about 500kg of C02 per year. In fact dryers alone in Sydney units produce an estimate 80,000 tonnes of CO2 a year which according to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald is the equivalent of 18,600 cars.

Instead we use a clothes rack on the balcony of our ground floor apartment. To appease the body corporate regulations I put up a bamboo screen to hide the clothes rack. Yes there is a by-law prohibiting the use of a clothes rack on your balcony. If it is visible from the street then it is apparently illegal and in the state of NSW in Australia you can face a fine of $5500 and up to 12 months in jail!

We are currently in our second year of our tenancy and I was rather surprised to be informed by our friendly neighbor that he has received some complaints about the screen and although he has tried to put this off, he has regrettably informed us that we must take this down and we can no longer dry our clothes on the balcony.
The following were discussed as possible solutions:

A) Use the clothes dryer

B) Get the body corporate to put up a common clothes line – (something which we are reluctant to use as some of our clothes were stolen from our previous residence)

C) Get a smaller clothes rack that sits below the concrete level that is only 30cm high which is probably only good for drying the clothes of a one year old

D) Buy some more pot plants that cover the whole area and do not allow you to see the clothes rack, but if they can see the clothes through the plants then expect another notice

E) Move out

Above is the offending screen that I have been ordered to take down.

Being reasonable I can’t afford to move out, I definitely don’t really want to lose another pair of Levis and am certainly not ready to have a one year old child. That rules out options B, C and D, leaving my options to use the dryer or buy some more plants with no guarantee that will quell the complaints.

Other ideas I have had is to replace the matting as shown in the photo with an Australian or my preference a New Zealand flag (wonder what the rulings are on that?). Or use the clothes rack inside my cramped apartment which ironically is ok even if it can be seen from the outside through the window.

I have to agree with what NSW Greens MP John Kaye said last year “NSW unit and townhouse dwellers are being forced to contribute to global warming by a state government law that encourages body corporates to ban the hanging of washing where it can be seen.” "It is time to get over being prissy about the site the washing hang out on a balcony.” "Threatening people who want to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions with a year in jail is senseless.”

So I need your help… Have any other readers had similar issues where laws and regulations are simply outdated? What about people’s attitudes? I generally get along with my neighbours, but to complain about something as trivial as this enrages me.

This is something that I am going to pursue further by sending a few letters to the local newspaper, politicians and my building’s body corporate. I have also asked Greens MP John Kaye how he is going at getting the law reviewed.

I will keep you informed of my progress and welcome any suggestions or comments. If anyone else stumbles across some outrageous laws that are detrimental to the environment, please feel free to share them.

0 members like this

Add a Comment

You need to be a member of Change2 to add comments!

Join Change2

Comment by Lee Stewart on July 22, 2009 at 12:42pm: AJ thanks for your comment but you would not believe what my body corporate has come up with now. That putting a "No Junk Mail" sticker on your letter box is the equivalent to defacing common property and looks shabby. I really think that people on the BC really need to get over it and it is getting a bit tiresome as a tenant.

Comment by AJ Jack on July 22, 2009 at 11:40am: Hi Lee,
I am on the body corporate of the palce where I live and we have the same rule.
There is someone who constantly hangs washing on their balconey and some of the other members of the body corporate get quite irate about it. I have never seen the offending washing, (and it is on a balcony near me) so I wouldn't class it as a big eyesore. I wonder whether the BC are getting upset because it is an eyesore or simply because someone is breaking the rules (however silly they may be) and rule breakers are not to be tolerated.
I am trying to get the by-law amended and it will go to a vote at the next AGM.

Comment by Felicity Thomas on June 23, 2009 at 12:31pm: This is a problem which definitely needs a solution given the increasing number of city apartments especially in cities like Melbourne. Combatting climage change shouldn't be solely the sphere of suburban block owners (which ironically has contributed in its own way to the problem in the first place!). Will watch with interest to see what solution you arrive at.

Comment by Lee Stewart on March 3, 2009 at 7:49am: Sergio, Good point but my problem is that I rent the apartment so don't really want to go to that expense and I would have to get the body corporate approval and the owners approval. Thanks for your suggestion will let you know how I get on.

Comment by Sergio on March 3, 2009 at 4:12am: Do you know if you are allowed to put some reflective coating to the windows ?

Comment by Nadine Botzenhart on March 2, 2009 at 12:09pm: Shocking! Your story is hard to believe and I am ever more surprised how far Europe is ahead in such things... or how close Australia is getting to the US. Please keep us updated, Lee, and thanks for pointing out yet another OZ law to me that I wasn' t aware of...! Just yesterday I moved my clothes rack dangerously close to our (window/transparent) balcony door - but the rack didn't quite touch the balcony floor yet, so I should be safe - or else I see ya in jail!

Comment by Betty Saenz on February 26, 2009 at 11:31pm: I think many of the laws need to be changed that were there pre-green consciousness & are now way obsolete. Sorry to hear you got caught up in one. In Colorado, while there attending the 2008 Green Real Estate Conference in Denver, we toured the old Stapleton airport dvlp. It is the larrgest brownfield re-development in the US- supposed to be GREEN. I was amazed to see that the raingutters went right down into the ground storm gutter system instead of into a rainwater collection vessel. In CO they have legal issues with rainwater collection. Here in the Austin, Texas area rainwater collection is used extensively. There is a new Master Gardener Rainwater Collection expert program. The American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association is headquartered here in Austin at 919 Congress Ave., Ste. 460, Austin, TX 78701. The mission of ARCSA is to promote rainwater catchment in the US. Membership is encouraged and open to people worldwide. One of the issues needing to be tackled here is graywater re-use. We are in the Texas Hill Country and currently in a drought. Yet most mainstream folks think they need a huge water-hogging St. Augustine lawn.

Comment by Lee Stewart on February 26, 2009 at 10:01am: Thanks for your comments, just to let you know I have sent letters to my local MP, Peter Garrett and also Green MP John Kaye asking for an explanation. Also plan to send one to the body corporate so will let you know how I get on.

Comment by Anthony Ogilvie on February 25, 2009 at 7:58am: Best of luck with this one. you already know some of the other painful rules that promote environmental banditry. My pet peeve is the perverse incentives around leasing to drive more for cheaper payments.

Potential options to resolve your issue are, (part jest, part serious):

If the BC does not have rules around privacy screens / flags etc on the balcony then they can ask all they like, your entitled to leave them there.

If they do allow some screening but it specifies plants only then you can take them to the discrimination courts. Why allow blocking a view of the balcony with plants but not allow privacy from other options.

Try painting images of plants on the screen and see if that appeases

Comment by Leon Young on February 24, 2009 at 2:54pm: Even the complex I live in, in the supposedly green urban renewal district of Green Square/Victoria Park in inner-city Sydney has the same absurd by-law. Body Corporate Managers have to take a role in making apartment buildings sustainable. While my complex was built to high sustainability building codes, the little things that the body corporate look after are not to the same standards. For example, lighting in common areas, even garbage rooms, is on 24/7. The switch to using movement sensors would pay for itself in no time and save the body corporate money as well as save the environment. We also have acres of flat, unobstructed roof top space, but do you think I can get anyone interested in installing solar PV's up there?

In large cities like Sydney, with a large apartment-dwelling population, all levels of government need to be supportive of residents who wish to lower their enviro impact. Let's see some financial incentives to motivate body corporates to take the actions that are possible, and a review of outdated legislation that penalises people for doing the wrong thing.