One of the many curious personality types I come across working in the body corporate industry is the guerrilla gardener.

Most residents of community title schemes are content to have courtyards or balconies for their gardening activities, or perhaps they join a local community garden project such as City Farm in Brisbane. Guerrilla gardeners on the other hand move their gardening activities into common areas, often to the dismay of their body corporate committee.

I have witnessed a range of guerrilla gardening handiwork in common areas, from establishing compost heaps to hard pruning shrubs, and dangerous activities such as climbing palm trees to remove fronds (clearly something that would not be covered by the body corporate’s public liability insurance in the event of a fall). I have even seen extreme cases of unit owners actually extending their own entertaining patios into common property and claiming it as their own exclusive use area.

It is up to the committee to have all residents adhere to body corporate by-laws, without entering into legal battles over small matters. One possible solution may be to direct the guerilla gardener’s energy into projects approved by the committee or giving them a small space of their own to work in.

As with all things body corporate, clear and frequent communication is the key to working on resolving differences of opinion before things get out of hand. Having said this, the guerrilla gardener is, by nature, keen to shake up the system so containing them may not be an option…

At the end of the day, harnessing (or curbing) these individuals’ enthusiasm is just another of the many challenges facing the body corporate committee.