QLD: Can a resident use visitor parking while hosting a guest?

Question: I have a visitor with an expensive car staying with me. She’s parking in my garage and my old car’s in the visitor’s spot. I’ve been served with a parking breach notice. How is that fair?

I have a visitor staying with me while house and job hunting. Her car is valuable and attractive and I have parked it in my unit garage and put my old car in a visitors car park

I’ve been informed in writing I am in breach of the by-laws and face removal. Other people’s visitors park in visitors and no parking bays all the time. I believe I am being singled out.

Also, I am disabled. I have a parking permit but am told I cannot park in the sole designated disabled car park on the lot as I have a garage.

Answer: The easiest solution is to have your visitor park in the visitor’s parking spaces.

Visitor’s parking is for visitors only, so technically it sounds like the letter of the law is being applied here. The easiest solution here is probably to have your visitor park in the visitor’s parking spaces.

Still, there can be grounds for some flexibility. Most visitors parking by-laws allow for the committee to make decisions on how visitors parking can be used by occupants. The standard schedule 4 by-laws, which may be different from yours, state:

2 Vehicles

1. The occupier of a lot must not—
   
   1. park a vehicle, or allow a vehicle to stand, in a regulated parking area; or
   2. without the approval of the body corporate, park a vehicle, or allow a vehicle to stand, on any other part of the common property; or
   3. permit an invitee to park a vehicle, or allow a vehicle to stand, on the common property, other than in a regulated parking area.

2. An approval under subsection (1) (b) must state the period for which it is given.
3. The body corporate may cancel the approval by giving 7 days written notice to the occupier.

So, if your by-law states something similar, approval to park a vehicle in the visitors spots can be approved by the Committee if they think it appropriate. Sometimes, there can be good short term reasons for doing this, such as helping an owner who is temporarily incapacitated for some reason.

Ideally, you would have made an application for your preferred parking arrangement in advance of your visitor arriving, but there is no reason you can’t do this after the fact.

The question would then be whether your request to have your visitor park in your spot and you park in the visitors spot is reasonable. My feeling is that Committees shouldn’t be making decisions based on perceived value of property as presented in the question. Everyone’s property is valuable to them, meaning a value judgement along these lines may be perceived as discriminatory. Is it OK to approve an arrangement like this because the vehicle you are looking to protect is a Lexus rather than a second hand Honda? That’s creating different rules for different owners based on financial status. It doesn’t seem reasonable to me. As stated, the visitor has the option of parking in the visitor’s spots. If they don’t feel comfortable with this arrangement, it’s hard to see that it is a body corporate problem.

The advice you have received regarding the disabled car space sounds correct. More exactly, that spot should probably be labelled the ‘visitor’s disabled car space’. It is intended for the use of disabled visitors rather than disabled occupants. As an occupant you should park in the space allocated to your lot.

This kind of interpretation can seem a bit hard on owners and is sometimes difficult for people to understand, but it is reasonable if you think about the question in terms of utility. By requesting the use of the space, you are asking for more utility than you are paying for. There may be some compassionate grounds to consider this, but then the body corporate also has to consider other applications from other owners. What if there were two disabled owners onsite? Which one should have use of the spot? Once additional utility is granted to one owner, it’s hard to reject the same additional utility request from other owners. The body corporate regulations aren’t perfect but they are workable in most instances. If they are going to be changed for some reason, the change has to be an improvement for the entire body corporate rather than an accommodation for individuals.

This post appears in the May 2022 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.

William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924