Why keeping pets in an estate could land you in trouble

In February this year, Doreen’s two-year-old daughter was walking with her visitor’s daughter in their estate when a neighbour’s dog attacked them.

Doreen’s daughter was walking with their small pet dog on a leash. Her neighbour’s two dogs charged at them barking. “My daughter started screaming and the neigbour’s maid, who was walking the two dogs, left the dogs and went to console my daughter. That is when one of the dogs bit my visitor’s six-year-old daughter,” says Doreen.

Her neighbour accepted responsibility and gave her some cash to cater for rabies injections. The injections, which are in five stages, cost Sh3,000 per session.

Incident

She consulted her lawyer to know the recourse. The lawyer advised her that the dog owner should cater for the injections and that the dog should be removed.

“When I approached the caretaker to tell her to remove the dog since it had become a risk to residents, she refused,” she says. The dogs’ owner moved houses and Doreen gave up following up the case.

“It’s unfortunate that some neighbours in the estate keep guard dogs as pets, which is not allowed in the deed of covenant, the estate’s laws and regulations,” says Doreen.

It might be due to such cases that residents of Nyayo Estate Embakasi last year received a circular from Kiragu and Mwangi Ltd, the estate managers, highlighting general guidelines to ensure effective running of the estate.

“Pets like dogs and cats are strictly forbidden as they have proved to be a nuisance to the occupiers of neigbouring units and in common areas. We would kindly ask anyone with such pets to adhere to the statutes and move the pets out of the estate urgently,” read the circular.

According to the Nairobi bylaws, keeping a dog older than four months without a licence is illegal and attracts a Sh2,000 fine.

According to Tom Agumbi, director of Tom & Company, the law is clear that if you are sharing a compound or apartment with other people, you should not keep a pet dog.

“This is because it may interfere with the peace of other people in the estate through its barking, poop and sometimes can be dangerous to children if it is not on a leash,” says Agumbi.

Consent

Agumbi says those who want to keep pet dogs in the estate should seek consent from the landlord or estate managers who will give them guidelines on how to keep it.

Property lawyer Harold Ayodo says it is the responsibility of pet owners to prevent their animals from injuring people. “According to Chapter 23 of the Penal Code, it amounts to criminal recklessness and negligence for a person to endanger human life by omitting to take precautions against probable danger from any animal in his or her possession,” says Ayodo.

Separately, there are gated communities coming up with restrictive covenants that forbid residents from keeping some pets. “Restrictive covenants mainly constrain the manner in which homeowners owners use their property for the benefit of adjoining neighbours,” adds Ayodo.

The written and signed agreements bind even third parties who were not party to the original bargain as a property right.

Even the Court of Appeal has set precedence on judgments against property owners who have breached binding restrictive covenants they never signed originally.

Ayodo advises that before buying property in high-end areas, it is important to confirm whether previous owners had entered into restrictive covenants with neighbours not to perform certain acts.