Washing laws hung out to dry
BY NICOLE COOPER
Unit and townhouse residents will no longer face $5500 fines and up to a year in prison for doing the environmentally responsible thing.
Moves by the NSW Fair Trading Minister Virginia Judge to review a regulation labelled the ‘state’s most ridiculous law’ have been welcomed by Greens NSW MP John Kaye.
“We have to go for the environmentally sensible and economically rational option to allow strata title residents to hang out their washing,” Dr Kaye said.
The current Office of Fair Trading strata title by-law bans the hanging of washing on balconies or anywhere that is visible to the public.
Owners’ corporations (formerly known as bodies corporate) can amend the by-law if they wish but most uphold it and force residents to use electric clothes dryers rather than make the street look untidy.
“It’s outrageous,” said Dr Kaye. “There are huge greenhouse problems associated with this”.
Dryers in Sydney units produce an estimated 80,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, the equivalent of over 18,000 cars.
Many Sydney residents say they feel that the current law is warranted and changes could give Sydney the potential to look like a shanty town. Rose Bay resident Graham Gilovitz is one of the residents against the proposed change. “It makes the place look like a youth hostel rather than a nice apartment building.”
Dr Kaye acknowledges that not everyone shares his view on the proposed change but believes that aesthetic considerations should not come before the future of the planet.
CBD resident Daniel Sloane suggests other ways to be environmentally friendly without causing the visual pollution. “People don’t necessarily need to use a dryer, they can hang clothes on communal clothes lines or an internal clothes rack”.
Rose Bay real estate agent Marcello Pose had this to say about the change, “From a selling point, you want to project a certain image. It will make it a lot more difficult to sell a block; I know a lot of agents that will not be voicing the change.”
