Ask Premium Strata – Visitors Car Parking

I am one of the committee member for building with 65 apartment units. Our strata manager has informed us that we can convert our visitor carpark into a unit car space without having to comply with our development consent.

At the moment We are complying with the minimum 13 visitor car parks space as per council development consent (1 visitor space per 5 unit) but if we convert one of them, we will be going against the development consent.

Can you help us to show if our strata manager is misleading us?

Answer: Development consent for the conversion will likely be required, and, if approved by Council, then by-laws, special resolutions and in all likelihood, a strata plan of subdivision will be required, in which case a valuer will also be required to re-allocate unit entitlements etcSo, unless there is something to the contrary in the Community Management Statement, and the executive committee continues to permit the substitution, you cannot reject the member for non-attendance.

A strata building cannot simply pass a by-law for the above conversion in direct contravention of the original development consent and would be invalid.

At first instance, you may wish to make a telephone enquiry to your local Council to confirm the requirement for a development application and then seek further advice from a planning /strata specialist lawyer.

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Please note that this article is provided for information purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal advice.