Question: We would like to park our caravan on our lot. Our approval has been refused despite neighbours parking caravans on their lots. The committee will not explain why. What do we do now?
We live in a body corporate estate and own our lot freehold. We want to park our caravan on our lot. The bylaws state caravans can be parked on the lot if they are suitably screened. We’ve requested approval and been told by the BCM that the committee says our lot is not suitable for screening.
There has been a caravan stored on a neighbouring lot for 3 years with no screen. Does this set precedence? We have asked why our lot is unsuitable, but have not received a response. What can we do?
Answer: The body corporate is required to make reasonable decisions and part of that can be proving an explanation for why a decision has been made.
The body corporate is required to make reasonable decisions. Part of reasonability can be proving an explanation for why a decision has been made. Without that, the decision can be viewed as arbitrary, which seems to be the case here.
As a next step you might write to the body corporate again requesting that explanation. Perhaps provide evidence or a plan of how screening might be effectively installed. Advise that if a credible explanation for the rejection of your application isn’t provided you will take further action on the matter.
What could further action be? As ever, there is a hierarchy of options starting with tabling a letter on the matter at the next committee meeting, submitting a motion for consideration at the next committee meeting or general meeting seeking to allow you to house the caravan as per the by-laws or filing your issue with the commissioner’s office so the matter can be determined by an outside party.
An alternative view could be to just put in the screening and house the caravan onsite anyway. That forces the body corporate to make a decision. They can issue you with a breach of by-law notice. They might do nothing. They might take the matter to the Commissioner’s office themselves. The Commissioner’s office could find in their favour. Or is might find in yours. This pathway is a gamble, but it is one some people are willing to take and it is the kind of thing that will happen if body corporates don’t provide reasonable explanations for their decision-making.
The other caravan parked at the site may not provide precedence – two wrongs don’t make a right – but it is worth asking why one is allowed and yours isn’t. If it is in breach of the by-laws, why isn’t the body corporate taking action? Maybe they are and you don’t know about it. All round, it seems that a more open conversation here may be beneficial. I would suggest to the body corporate that you are willing to have that and see what they say.
This post appears in the December 2022 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.
William Marquand Tower Body Corporate E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au P: 07 5609 4924