I live in a strata townhouse complex and our annual general meeting is coming up shortly. When I received the minutes in the mail this week, I was surprised to see there is an amendment being proposed that no children’s wading pools be allowed on the lawns that are behind our units. Instead, the proposal states that the wading pools must be on the concrete patio.

My first question is: can they limit what owners can do on limited common property (the lawn), as long as it does not impact the appearance of the unit?

I would also like to know if prescribing the location of the wading pool actual creates legal liability on the part of the strata? After all, it would seem to me that if a child were to fall and get injured on the concrete patio because strata has expressly defined that as the only place that pools can reside, it would be the responsibility of strata.

We have a three year old, and we know other people in the strata who have young children, so the poor weather this summer aside, you can see that this could really impact us.

Thanks for your time