I live on the fourth floor in a condominium sandwiched between two units. Sharing my west wall is a pair of Japanese students. To my east lives a young urban couple with two curious cats – a chubby tuxedo cat and a young grey tabby. All three of our units share a long adjoining balcony. Two floor-to-ceiling opaque glass dividers separate me from my neighbors - giving me the privacy I assume I get when I’m in my own home. Or so I thought…

People love their cats as if they were they’re own children. Don’t get me wrong, cats are wonderful pets – especially when they are someone else’s. I choose to live cat-free, mainly because I am allergic. However, my neighbors’ cats don’t seem to care what I think and have used my property as their own.

Having those glass dividers have not provided the privacy I expected. There are gaps still big enough for cats to crawl under. My neighbors’ cats often mill around my balcony. They have even tried numerous times to enter my suite. During the summer, I usually leave my window open while I sleep. One night I got up to go to the bathroom, I screamed, startled by an unwelcome cat sitting on the inside of the window sill. They know no boundaries and definitely do not fear me. What upset me most was that they pooped on the middle of the balcony floor.

So embittered, I tried the following tactics to repel my neighbors’ cats:

Natural Cat Repellents

• used coffee grinds (started to smell)
• mixture of black pepper, cayenne pepper, lemon & orange peels (was a mess and made the balcony look like a compost)
• citronella (did not do much)
• spraying water (too time consuming to be vigilant about catching them)
• laying out containers of water (worried about breeding mosquitoes too close to my window)
• Scaredy Cat plant Coleus Canina (stinky plant even to people)

Physical Barriers

• bamboo fencing (the cats figured out how to break through)
• blocks of wood (this worked temporarily)
• wooden box planters with cedar trees (this was more aesthetically pleasing, however did nothing)

In addition, I spoke directly to my neighbors and told them how their cats were defecating on my property. They were a little surprised by their behavior and said they would try put up barriers on their side to discourage them. However, the cats came back and pooped, even after all my efforts to block them. Why weren’t my neighbors more worried about their cats getting into places they should not be?

I was so infuriated I contacted the property manager of our strata corporation. I wanted to find out if my neighbors were in breach of our strata bylaws and if I should make a formal complaint.

According to our Strata Bylaws, under “DUTIES OF OWNERS, TENANTS, OCCUPANTS AND VISITOR”:

 2.3 Use of Property

2.3.7     An owner of a pet shall not permit the pet to urinate or defecate on the common property, and if any pet does urinate or defecate on the common property or limited common property, the owner shall immediately and completely remove all of the pet's waste from the common property and dispose of it in a waste container or by some other sanitary means. 

2.3.8     An owner of a pet shall not permit the pet to create a nuisance.

2.3.11    The strata corporation may require removal by an owner, tenant or occupant of any pet or other animal by such owner, tenant or occupant if such pet or animal, in the opinion of the corporation, is a nuisance or annoyance to any other owner, tenant or occupant of a strata lot, or the strata corporation.

Knowing that I had legal grounds for removing my neighbors’ cats, I chose to appeal to them face-to-face once again. Even with the physical barriers that we put up, the cats were so determined to cross the boundaries of our units, that they risked their lives walking a tight rope across the balcony banister edge four storeys high.

The cats have now stopped coming over. The solution ultimately was a knock on my neighbours’ door and a shift in my approach, appealing to their parental instincts for the security and safety of their beloved cats.  They did not want their cats to have a fatal accident. And honestly neither did I.

In the end, I learned you can't have full privacy when living in a strata. Eventually something like your neighbors' cats will get you involved and into each others space.