The $11 billion diversified property developer was taken to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal after refusing Kevin and Leanne Fogarty’s request to allow their cousins Rhonda and Michael Huston, aged 68 and 71, to stay at their manufactured home to look after their two dogs while they took a short holiday. 

The Fogartys were forced to obtain permission from Stockland because it is the owner of the “residential park” in which the Fogarty's manufactured home sits. A clause within the written site agreement between Stockland and the Fogartys says they need consent before allowing others to occupy their home when they are not present. 

Stockland claimed it would set a precedent and be unfair to other residents at Vision by Halcyon, pointing to a 2019 community meeting as evidence that homeowners “have a strong position for not allowing pet sitters” stay while owners are away. 

The Fogarty’s took their case to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal after they refused their September 2022 request to allow their cousins to pet sit at Vision by Halcyon  for 11 days. 

In her decision handed down on 22 May 2024, QCAT member Sasanka Munasinghe ordered Stockland “must permit” the Hustons to live at the Fogarty’s home for up to three weeks while they holiday in 2024 using Qantas flight credits from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I do not consider that there are reasonable grounds … to withhold consent to the applicants request,” she concluded. “I am not persuaded that acquiescing to the applicants’ request ‘opens the floodgates’ to similar requests within the park.” 

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