Strata Fence: Being asked to change a fence erected by Previous owner

[Jax86]

Hi,
We have lived in our strata house for just under 2 years and today received a request as follows: Remove and replace front side fence (approx 1 x 2.0 covers bin area) as it does not comply with the current strata required fencing style and was not approved by strata.
Is this correct? do we have a right to not change the fence as it has slightly wider slats than others, but is the correct colour.
Is there a standard timeline for strata to request changes too, or removal of past owners breaches ?
We purchased the property as is, with no issues prior to this having been noted.

 

[Rob Legat - SBPL]

The state you're in could be relevant, so you may want to include that.

Whether the body corporate can require you to change the fence will depend on the by-laws and the area's status with respect to being common property, exclusive use or on title. In many instances the simple answer will be - yes, they can.

As for a time limit, that's not going to be relevant in the circumstances. Nor is the fact that someone else did the changes. It's a case of 'you bought it, you own it, warts and all'. The only way potentially around this is if you could prove that the body corporate was aware of the situation prior to you buying the lot and chose to ignore it. That's very hard to prove, and not a guaranteed success in any case.