Your property questions answered

Dogs in apartments

Can the management company of my apartment block make me get rid of my dog?

Your email was short on details - but because the management company is talking directly to you instead of indirectly through a landlord, it's a fair assumption that you are an owner-occupier. It is usual for leases in apartment blocks to prohibit animals and that is almost certainly the case in your block.

As with most aspects of a lease, the management company don't really like to get involved unless someone has made a complaint - either about your dog making noise, particularly if you are out at work during the day, or fouling in the vicinity of block. If you have a particularly large dog in a small apartment, a fellow resident could also have complained on animal welfare grounds.

So, yes, the management company can seek to enforce the terms of the lease and stop you having a dog in your apartment. There will be countless people reading this who know people living in apartments with pets. It doesn't necessarily mean that their leases are different from yours, it's more likely to be a case of interpretation.

A cat lover can usually get away with a moggy or even two, simply because cats tend to be quiet and other residents might not even know that there is one on the premises. However, this column has heard of an apartment block where the complaint was against a resident because their cat encouraged the neighbours' cats to congregate outside the balcony, accompanied by a great deal of wailing, so it's far from the case that all cats are okay and all dogs are forbidden.

There have been cases where an elderly person has been able to appeal directly to the board of residents to permit a much loved pet stay with them. Special pleading by any resident, particularly in small blocks, can work. If, however, yours has got to the complaint stage you may have an uphill battle.

Wooden floors in flats

I have bought an apartment and I now want to renovate and, in particular, install wooden floors in my livingroom. This is prohibited in the lease but the apartment was built in the 1970s before wooden floors became popular, so surely this is one part of the lease we can disregard and go ahead. I suspect at least one other apartment owner in this block has already simply done that.

You could go ahead but you will be breaking the terms of the lease - a legal document, no matter how old-fashioned you deem it - and if there is an owner-occupier living under you who wants to make trouble then you could find yourself drawn into a long and unpleasant row. Far better to approach other residents - particularly owner-occupiers and get their opinion and support for changing that particular covenant in the lease. Then you should take the matter to the board of residents. Your argument should run along the lines that, if floors are laid professionally with good quality insulation, there shouldn't be a problem. The other apartment owner might have gotten away with laying a wooden floor either because they live on the ground floor - where noise isn't too much of an issue - or because your block has been full of renters who tend to be transitory and not too interested in complaining to the management company.

Send your queries to Property Questions, The Irish Times, 10-16 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 or e-mail propertyquestions@irish-times.ie.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to respond to all questions. The above is a representative sample of queries received. This column is a readers' service and is not intended to replace professional advice. No individual correspondence will be entered into.