Question: If a strata block of units is zoned residential, can someone operate a manufacturing business from a unit? The person with the manufacturing business does not live in the building but owns the lot.
It is like listening to someone urinating into a toilet bowl 24/7. Strata management is unable to offer any other solution, feeling they have hit a wall with this owner. I am aware of NCAT but I’m unsure if the noise level is what EPA would deem excessive.
Answer: Review the development consent for the building to determine what activities are permitted with the consent of council and which are absolutely prohibited.
The fact that the property is zoned residential does not mean that some type of manufacturing would not be permitted if approved by council. You would have to review the development consent for the building to determine what activities are permitted with the consent of council and which are absolutely prohibited.
Assuming that the activity is permitted with or without consent of council, the manufacturing lot would have had to have notified the owners corporation if the standard by-law shown below applies to your scheme:
19 Change in use of lot to be notified
An occupier of a lot must notify the owners corporation if the occupier changes the existing use of the lot in a way that may affect the insurance premiums for the strata scheme (for example, if the change of use results in a hazardous activity being carried out on the lot, or results in the lot being used for commercial or industrial purposes rather than residential purposes).
For the full question and our detailed response, visit the original publication at Look Up Strata.
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