Communal Living !

It is a fact of Australian life that those living in a house on a quarter acre block of land are fast diminishing and being replaced by apartment blocks where the residents are subject to strata by-laws to govern the new art of communal living.   As the ratio of those who smoke some form of tobacco retreat these by-laws to control tobacco smoke become more restrictive.

In many cases, the body corporate simply passes a by-law that outlaws smoking in all areas of common property and that includes the car park, grounds and entrances.   The area of controversy is then concentrated on apartments that have their own individual balconies, and that can cause huge friction where a smoking family finds themselves next door to a fanatical non smoker.

The law is very firm on tenants rights.   Smoking is a perfectly legal habit that a smoker is free to practice within the confines of their home, and those who pay rent to occupy an apartment certainly have the right to regard it as their home.   The problem is that their tobacco smoke may not remain within those four walls - and if it becomes invasive and drifts into another residents home it opens a huge bag of legal worms.

One hotly debated topic is the issue of smoking on those balconies.  They are usually open to the weather and the typical balcony has an identical appendage located above and below - and to either side.   Each of these is regarded as an integral part of the residents "home " and yet smoke from one balcony is free to enter the domain of several others.

This right to smoke on an individual apartments balcony has been to court many times without a definitive answer.   It usually devolves to negotiations between the aggrieved parties and some sort of compromise.  It can result in ongoing neighbourly friction in many apartment blocks.

New strata laws that come into effect next week will tend to tip the balance in favour of those complaining about tobacco smoke.   Where fumes from people smoking drift into nearby apartments this is being termed a "nuisance "by the body corporate, although the issue of smoking on balconies has not been made clear.

The government is seeking to create a "safety valve " for unit blocks by suggesting that body corporates consider setting aside a designated are of common property as a smoking area. Obviously, this would need to be located where smoke could not easily drift into other apartments but it would defuse the refusal of smoking rights entirely.

Perhaps this might require application of what is now called the "Seventy five percent " law that applies to the consent needed to force the sale of all units for a building to be demolished and renewed.   If setting aside a smoking area requires a hundred percent approval by residents then the objection of one anti smoking fanatic would deem that compromise to failure.

Applying the seventy-five percent ratio of approval would certainly introduce the prospect of a more harmonious settlement in a gathering of fair minded people !