As a pet owner, you’re responsible for ensuring your pet doesn’t cause inconvenience or disruption to your neighbours. This requirement is amplified in a strata setting because everybody lives close together, shares common spaces and wants to avoid conflict. Let’s discuss how to be a good pet neighbour in a strata building.
Understand and follow the strata pet rules
The first thing you need to do if living in strata with a pet is understand your by-laws. Most strata buildings have extensive by-laws, which are the rules every resident needs to follow. These rules are in place to ensure the comfort and safety of everybody in the building. And you guessed it, every set of by-laws is likely to mention pets.
You’ll obviously need to consider the by-laws before you even buy a pet or move in with a pet. Most buildings are accommodating, but there are naturally rules regarding noise, cleaning up after your pet and ensuring they stay safe and secure. Understand the rules, and you’ll know exactly what your responsibilities are.
Keep noise levels down
Pets, especially dogs, can sometimes be noisy. Needless to say, unnecessary noise disturbs neighbours, particularly in an apartment building. Your neighbours might work from home or have young children trying to sleep. So, barking dogs or other noisy pets aren’t going to be popular in a strata environment. They may even breach the by-laws. Fortunately, most dogs can be trained to stop barking, and if training doesn’t work, you might need to consider anti-barking collars or other remedies.
Maintain cleanliness and hygiene
When you have pets, accidents are just par for the course. Most people understand that a pet’s bodily functions are hard to control, but they also expect to live in a clean environment. You should adopt a regular pet toileting schedule, taking them outside to an appropriate area to do their business. This prevents most unwanted accidents.
However, when an accident occurs in the building or outside premises, ensure you clean up after your pet. People generally accept a pet’s needs as long as their owner is responsible for the mess.
Provide adequate exercise for your pet
Most pets need exercise to stay healthy. But regularly exercising your pets benefits everybody else too. Dogs especially need plenty of walks to manage their up and down energy levels. Without activity, some dogs experience behavioural issues that can be annoying for other residents. This could be barking or even destroying property in your home. So, keep your pets exercised, and their temperament should be a lot more suited to apartment living.
Respect shared spaces
Finally, to be a good pet neighbour, you need to respect shared spaces around the building. This means elevators, stairwells, corridors and even outside the building. Not everybody loves pets, so you should always keep animals on a leash whenever you’re in a shared space. Anything your animal does in a shared space is your responsibility, so being considerate to your neighbours will help everyone to live together happily – pets and humans.
Need help with strata management?
More Than Strata offers expert strata management services to ease the burden on your Owners Corporation. From financial management to dispute resolution, we can handle everything. Contact us today to discover a better way to help your strata scheme thrive.
