Question: Some staff from the commercial lots in our building park in the strata visitor car parking spaces. As employees, shouldn’t they be stopped from using visitor parking? Answer: The commercial lot owner is welcome to have his staff park in his own car space(s) but not visitor parking. In our view you are…
Question: An ordinary resolution passed in 1991 at a general meeting voted to allow owners to park on common property and gave them allocated spaces. Do these owners have exclusive use rights of the common property? Answer: As no by-law was created, no exclusive use was validly created. This is a complex legal question, however,…
Question: A Lot Owner uses their garage for storage and parks their car on the street. The garage is below my apartment and they are constantly removing items and opening and closing the door. Is this nuisance? Answer: Check your by-laws to determine if you have a “Storage” By-law which basically states that only motor…
Parking Bay Allocation After reading your article on Strata News on towing parking offenders from common property, I was hoping you could give us some advice with an ongoing issue we have on parking. Parking issues take up far too much time in strata! We are in Sydney and we have a tenant residing in…
Question: We have a non resident who irregularly uses visitor parking while he commutes. He has no connection with our scheme. Are we able to tow his car and is it the best option? Answer: As the vehicle is only parked one day at a time you will not satisfy the notice requirements needed…
Question: We have a general By-law stating residents must not park on common property without written approval. Is this sufficient or should we specifically refer to visitor parking spaces? Answer: A very specific visitor parking by-law should be drafted by a strata lawyer. Technically, this by-law is adequate because visitor car parking is common property. However,…
Question: I was fined for not parking in a visitor parking space at my girlfriend’s apartment. They are pursuing her for the money. Is this parking fine from the owners corporation valid? Answer: Only NCAT has jurisdiction to issue “fines” or “penalties” in this context. Therefore, it is highly unlikely this fine could be enforced. Only…
Question: A lot owner has a very regular visitor who has been given a security pass to our garage and his car is regularly in our single strata visitor car parking spot. He has become quite territorial about the space. How do we handle this? Answer: The owners corporation’s strategy should be to enter…
Question: About a month ago the receiver for our automatic garage door openers on the undercover secure garage stopped working properly. While we wait for the repair of the receiver, is it permitted to lock out residents from their own garages? Answer: Permanent closure of the garage may be a violation of proprietary rights…
Question: Some residents in our building use the visitor parking spaces as an additional parking spot. Is it possible to increase levies for these few residents and not all lot owners? Answer: First you need to ascertain from the development consent for the building exactly how many visitor parking spaces are required by law. Before…
Can parking offenders be towed from the common property? Under the new strata legislation, the Owners Corporation has finally received new powers to tow vehicles in breach of by-laws. On the downside, the Owners Corporation must tolerate the offending vehicle for at least five (5) days before it may take any action. Upon service of…
Question: What is the protocol for a lot owner to have automatic garage door openers installed to an existing garage door in a Strata Complex? We all have our own individual garages; however, I am curious to know if there is any protocol for having such a device installed. Answer: It is more likely to…
A Look Up Strata reader in NSW wanted to know whether his unregistered project vehicle, parked in his assigned parking space without causing any disturbance, can be towed away by the Owners Corporation. One of his neighbours warned him that if he didn’t move the vehicle within two weeks, the car would be towed of…
A LookUpStrata reader wanted to know what can be done about tenants who use the garage of their strata unit in NSW as a spare bedroom, and wondered whether this was even legal. In summary, our response was that a garage is not deemed a “habitable” area and therefore, in all likelihood, the tenants are…
A LookUpStrata reader, who works as a building manager in NSW, wanted to know whether the owners corporation can lease out additional visitor parking spaces to a retail lot owner, and what the correct process would be to establish such an arrangement. In summary, the fact that this concerns visitors parking complicates this matter. Whereas…
We have written a new article about parking on common property. Under the new legislation, the Owners Corporation has finally received new powers to tow vehicles in breach of by-laws. On the downside, the Owners Corporation must tolerate the offending vehicle for at least five days before it may take any action. The new legislation…
A LookUpStrata reader discovered they’d been using the wrong parking space and wanted to know what rights they have to get their actual allocated car parking space as per the contract of sale. In short, the strata plan allocations of car spaces will usually override any practices/use by the individual owners/occupiers. We recommended that the…
A LookUpStrata reader wanted to know what could be done about inappropriate parking behaviour by other residents. We recommend that they gather evidence and notify the strata manager or strata committee to enforce the by-laws applicable to the scheme. Steps could be taken for the Owners Corporation to enter into an agreement with local council for…
A LookUpStrata reader with a disabled parking permit wanted to know whether he was allowed to use the visitors car park disabled spot. This owner has 2 parking spots allocated to his apartment, however is having difficulty get in and out of his car when parked in these spots. In summary, the owner is not…
Leanne provided a response to another reader’s question received by LookUpStrata. The reader wanted to know what to do in order to retain her tenants, who are having apartment parking space problems, and may vacate because of this. You can read the full question, and Leanne’s response by clicking here.