We received the following question about whether it is a safety risk to have plants in hanging pots on an apartment balcony.
Question: We believe plants in hanging pots on an apartment balcony in our scheme are an OHS issue. Can we request they be removed?
We have a unit owner who has plants in hanging planter pots on the outside of their balcony. What can be done about these hanging pots? Can we request they be removed?
The unit owner with the hanging pots has an elderly person living directly beneath them. We are worried that if one of the planters falls from the balcony, the pot could hit the elderly person while they are in their garden.
Should we be concerned this is an OHS matter? We would like to be proactive rather than see an ugly outcome.
Answer: The likelihood of the hanging pots falling is very low. Unless there was evidence of deterioration, I wouldn’t recommend removing them.
I am not sure if the pots are hanging from the balustrade or from the ceiling of the balcony.
Planters that hang off the balustrade would be over the common property in New South Wales, as with anywhere in Australia. The bottom line is that if the plants aren’t on the common property, then it is not a WHS issue for the Owners Corporation.
If the hanging pots are on common property, then it is only in extreme circumstances that it would be a safety issue. If we’re talking hanging planter pots that are over common property but hung off the underside of the balcony above, then again it is very unlikely to be a safety issue.
It would depend on the strength of the hanging mechanism and likelihood of the whole thing falling, but (in NSW) the hanging mechanism wouldn’t be on common property, so the Owners Corporation wouldn’t be able to do anything in any case.
The likelihood of hanging plants falling is very low and unless there was evidence of deterioration I wouldn’t recommend removing them.
If this problem was to occur in other states around Australia, it always comes down to what is defined as the boundary lines:
- In Victoria, the outside balcony is common property/inside is the lot owners responsibility,
- Balconies in Queensland are considered common property from a maintenance prospective, but not in NSW.
Peter Berney Solutions in Engineering T: 1300 136 036 E: peter@solutionsinengineering.com
This article is not intended to be personal advice and you should not rely on it as a substitute for any form of advice.
This post on appears in Strata News #131
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