QLD: Who is responsible for cleaning exclusive use car park spaces versus common property in strata buildings

Question: Our car park spaces are exclusive use, and the rest is common property. Who is responsible for cleaning the car park?

The December 2023 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine includes an article by Will Marquand about cleaning garages. The Q&A indicates that the body corporate is responsible for the cleaning. In my present building, it’s assumed that since the parking spaces are assigned to units and numbered accordingly, they are part of the unit’s exclusive use area. As such, owners are responsible for cleaning their parking space, and the body corporate cleans the rest of the common area. Is this correct?

Answer: Schemes have committees to find a pathway through these issues.

Maintenance of exclusive use areas is generally the responsibility of the lot owner, so the interpretation here sounds correct.

For reference, see the below link for a handy guide on exclusive use responsibilities: Exclusive use – maintenance responsibilities

However, you also have to consider the practicalities of building management.

We don’t know the set-up of your building. Still, if we considered an underground car park with common property and exclusive use spaces, it may be difficult to arrange an annual pressure clean where each owner was responsible for the costs of cleaning their own exclusive space. It’s hard to oblige owners to pay individually, and the benefits of the cleaning will be lessened if you choose to have your space cleaned, but your neighbours on either side don’t. In these circumstances, the body corporate might organise to clean the whole area, including the exclusive use spaces, and cover the costs.

You can argue about the technical correctness of this but provided you achieve a wider benefit and owners aren’t unfairly disadvantaged, this doesn’t seem like an unreasonable action. In other circumstances, an alternative system may be more appropriate. If you had a building where only half the lots had parking spaces or access to the car park, you might need to introduce a set-up that only applied the cost to the lot owners with spaces. Finding a pathway through these kinds of issues is what schemes have committees for, so if you have questions about your site, refer them to the committee and see what the response is.

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