This Q&As is about breaching by-laws and issuing, or being issued, a rule infringement notice.
Question: How do you stop residents from speeding in a large basement car park?
How do you stop residents from speeding in a basement car park that includes 50 – 70 car spaces plus storage cages, storerooms, electricity cabinets….etc?
We have warned the driver twice but we feel this is falling on deaf ears. Do we get the strata management or the police involved? It is dangerous and unsafe. Children and elderly tenants and/or vehicles could be impacted. Our consolidate bylaws are in plain view, outside the lift. We have 10 km/hr speed signs at the car park entry.
What is the correct procedure? Do we issuing a warnings or take legal action? We are trying to be proactive rather than reactive.
Answer: The first step would be for the owners corporation to issue a warning letter, then a Rule Infringement Notice.
The first step would be for the owners corporation to issue a warning letter. If the speeding continues, the executive committee would need to have a resolution to instruct the strata manager to issue a Rule Infringement Notice. If the practice still continues then proceed with an application to ACAT.
The police will not normally become involved, as this relates to private property. The owners corporation could also consider the installation of speed humps.
Jan Browne
Bridge Strata
E: [email protected]
P: 02 6109 7700
This post appears in Strata News #704.
Have a question about a rule infringement notice or something to add to the article? Leave a comment below.
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How do you deal with an EC chair who appears to control the EC committee, what is posted on the Facebook group (posts are deleted questioning lack of communication etc) and has strata contact the chair immediately if you contact them? There is no forum to discuss how residents feel about strata, the EC committee or any issues
Hi Ms Jones
The following response has been provided by Chris Irons, Strata Solve:
While we don’t have any expertise in ACT strata legislation, we do think we could offer some general observations for the situation you describe.
Regardless of the State or Territory, it is – unfortunately – relatively common for committee members to act unilaterally. Which is of course totally contrary to how a committee is meant to operate.
In an ideal world there’d be a conversation with the chair about the concerns and the need to ensure there’s an adequate facility for sharing views and information. If not yourself, then perhaps there is someone else who has a decent relationship with the chair and who could have the conversation. It might be that the chair actually believes they are ‘doing the right thing’ and has good intentions, not realising that they are contributing to discontent. You could also bring in a third party, on a neutral basis, to facilitate or broker a discussion or outcome.
One also wonders if the chair is responding to a perceived concern or risk: have there been some sensitive or unpleasant posts in the past on social media that have caused issues?
Putting all that to one side, the reality is that if people in a strata scheme want to express their views and talk about how they feel, then generally the forum to do that is a strata meeting. We’re not sure that social media is the best platform for sharing strata views. It is far too easy for things to be said behind the safety of an anonymous keyboard which then turn out to be inflammatory: defamation is a real issue in strata. We’re not for a minute saying people shouldn’t have the opportunity to express their views. What we are saying, though, is that it’s important to pick the right time and the right place.
This is general information only and not legal advice.