Question: If residents drive taxis and regularly park the taxis in the visitor spaces, can we take any action against the taxi company?
Tenants park their cars in visitor parking. Notices of breach of the by-laws have been sent multiple times to the owner and the tenants, but nothing has changed.
The tenants also drive taxis and regularly park the taxis in the visitor spaces. Can we take any action against the taxi company?
Answer: If the company is breaching the by-laws, I would most certainly send the by-law breach notices to the company and bring the breach to their attention.
Tenants, like owners, are responsible to comply with the by-laws. If the company is breaching the by-laws, I would certainly send the by-law breach notices to the company and bring the breach to their attention. Include the vehicle registration details and state that the vehicle continues to park in the visitor car space.
A company that receives a formal notice to comply will be concerned about the matter escalating.
Consider other solutions, like a smart bollard system. A bollard would control the situation via a legitimate booking system. It’s a quick solution that prevents unauthorised people from using the space.
This post appears in the December 2024 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.
Leanne Habib
Premium Strata
E: info@premiumstrata.com.au
P: 02 9281 6440
With all the reference to the Development consent our Strata manager refers to the strata plan is it up to him to be sure the strata plan is compliant to the development consent conditions
We do look to him for advice but do not think the strata plan is compliant to the DA conditions
Hi Diane
This Q&A should assist:
Question: Should our strata plans comply with the DA conditions and concessions?
We are leving one of the property from last one year. this complex has eight townhouses under the shelter we have eigth car parking spaces for each house. When we moved in this property the neighbours showed us this property has this car space so we use to park there in the begining. Few days later we found a note on our car saying “don’t park your car here, this is our property”. When we saw the note we got confus then aked them to come out and show us the car space for this property through the note. But they did not respond but we were still parking in the same space. One day they keyed our cay very badly.
We reported the atter to the real state and the police but did not get any soluation, at the end we have to park our car far far away from the property. We have laws and regulations in place but no concequenes for the culprint. Very sad
Hi,
We moved to this place 2019, from that day there was this van parked on Visitors Parking and not even move since then. I suspect the vehicle is broken and permanently park there. I also don’t understand why no one is complaining about it. I wonder where to complain this vehicle so the visitors can use the parking properly?
Hi Leonard
The following response has been provided by Leanne Habib, Premium Strata:
From 1st July 2020, Owners Corporations may dispose of goods it reasonably believes have been left behind or abandoned on common property by following the procedures set out in the Uncollected Goods Act, 1995 – this includes motor vehicles.
NSW Fair Trading has useful information on this subject:
https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-property/strata-and-community-living/strata-schemes/abandoned-goods-and-vehicles
I am a Tenant living in 1 of 3 Townhouses in NSW all of which are rented. We all have a garage and there is a 1 visitor parking space which is directly in front of townhouse 3. I have been questioning for 2 years why townhouse 3 is allowed to park in the visitor car spot and townhouse 1 or myself cannot, or any visitors for that matter! Finally got a response 17/12/2020 from my property manager saying “no one can park in this spot excluding the occupant of Unit 3. Unfortunately this is an arrangement with Strata and nothing can be done to change it”
Does this have to be put in writing under the By-Laws and if so can I request a copy from Strata when the actually effective date was and why they have made allowances for him and not the other tenants or visitors to be able to park in the visitors car spot.
Hi Sue
Rod Smith, The Strata Collective has responded to your question in the above article.
I have a question. Where is the correct place to post questions, of a general nature on the Lookupstrata.com website.
Hi Roger
Our Ask A Strata Question page is situated under our Help tab in the Menu: https://www.lookupstrata.com.au/contact/
We also link to the page from our footer.
Thanks
Visitors carparks are a major issue in Qld for Body Corporates. Would this work?
Option 1
1) Unit owners should be issued with one sign to be put on the dashboard – “Visiting Unit 5 – Mobile Ph 04xxxxxxxx. If no sign fines may be applied..
2) The visitors carpark can be monitored by photo or video for compliance
Option 2
a) Place lockable bollards in the visitors carpark that can only be opened or closed by a designated unit number’s FOB. The system can monitor times the FOB was used to open/ shut. These time code details can reduce abuse.
b) The visitors carpark can also be monitored by photo or video for compliance. This option would be a more expensive option but could be effective in the longterm.
Option 3
Look at possible combinations of Options 1 and 2
Brainstorming 🙂
Hi Geoffrey
The following response has been provided by Chris Irons, Hynes Legal:
It’s always good to brainstorm practical solutions. That said, such solutions still need to be consistent with the legislation.
Looking at some of your ideas, I need to point out that a by-law can’t impose fines or other monetary penalties. Another point to bear in mind is that when you start to talk about photo or video monitoring, if that monitoring is installed on common property then any footage is a body corporate record and accessible to an owner, tenant or other interested people, either under legislation or by order of an adjudicator. So before talking about ‘monitoring’, a body corporate needs to have a good think about how they are going to manage access to that footage.
So they can’t fine me $165 if I park over 24 hours in a visitor parking spot as a visitor? a building I visit is issuing fines of $165 for people using those parking spots that are just visiting for over 24 hours (we are currently in lockdown so no one is visiting I am allowed for compassionate reasons so I decided that I wasn’t going to park on the street recently and they only just made it a rule to park for under 24 hrs)
Hi
Leanne Habib, Premium Strata has responded to your question in the above article.
In Western Australia a strata company could license the use of car bays for a fee, subject to local planning restrictions and the scheme development approval. The strata company should adopt a bylaw to enable the activity and preferably set some rules on the operation of the licensing i.e. restricted to owners and occupiers within the scheme. Before embarking on the enterprise it is important to consider the income tax implications for owners as the license fees would be non-mutual income and possibly assessed in the hands of the lot owners – refer to ATO TR2015/3. This Tax Rulings application varies from state to state but that it also set out in the ruling.
Visitors parking, has become a joke in our complex, as one family claim them as their own. We have tried being polite, firm, and out of sheer desperation have considered parking them in. They ignore it all. We have spoken to police and council, not their problem, we would happily pay to have them towed away, but it is illegal. This is common place in many complexes, and is infuriating as people simply show their contempt for others. Next time we buy, we are going to ask about parking problems, parties, building problems, from other owners,if they have problems we will simply look elsewhere.
This is a grey area.
In a perfect world, these visitors car spaces should have ‘2 hour’ time limits.
The only way I can see this working is to breach the offender. Though trying to find out who the offender is comes with its own set of problems (such as privacy issues – the authorities won’t tell you who the owner is even if you have the registration). Unless you keep a record of every tenant’s vehicle registration. Though your owner’s corporation fees may increase.
New developments in this area (due to lack of parking spaces) is “THE SHARED CAR’ revolution which is coming to high rise buildings which could stop these issues especially when each tenant has their own car.
I know of a case where a parking inspector was allowed to enter a property to fine a car but this was a unique arrangement, and the garage was open access.
There’s a lot to consider here. A member of Parliament should really look into this.
We purchased our unit on the ground floor because I cannot climb stairs and there is no lift. We noted the exclusive use car spaces outside our windows but thought that use of this area would be governed by other strata bylaws such as not making unreasonable noise. No so here. One owner can “give permission’ to an unlimited number of relatives, friends, and friends of friends to use their carspace which is right in front of our windows. If one comes when another is using it they double park on common property which of course is not allowed. Worse, 6 vehicles belonging to other residents have also been ‘given permission’ to use the car space closest to our windows. This means that there is a constant coming and going there, with slamming doors, and yelling passengers. We have no peace at all. Our loudest committee members have no carspace, so they do oppose any action, which is supported by our strata manager.