This article discusses visitors sleeping overnight in strata car parks and what options a body corporate has under by-laws and nuisance laws.
Question: An occupant allows his visitors to stay overnight, sleeping in their cars in our outdoor visitor car parks. Sometimes these visitors also have pets.
An occupant allows his visitors to sleep overnight in their cars, in our outdoor visitor car parks. These people appear to be travellers. There is, of course, no mention of this in our parking by-laws so we are not quite sure of their rights to do so or our rights to disallow it.
These visitors also bring their dogs. The pet bylaw is the usual “do not bring animals onto the property without permission” one. This seems very, very hard to enforce even under normal circumstances. How does this work out in practice? Does the body corporate committee approve the pet in every instance? Or if the dog is quiet, on a lead, cleaned up after etc then we can’t/shouldn’t contest it?
Answer: It would appear that your building is in need of a review of its by-laws, especially if the problems you are having are not covered by by-laws.
Regarding the issues you raise, it would appear that your building is in need of a review of its by-laws, especially if the problems you are having are not covered by by-laws.
There also comes a point where, if someone is visiting on a regular basis, they might cease to be a visitor and start to become an occupier. That can be difficult to determine but there have certainly been adjudicators’ orders on this topic. Occupiers are bound by by-laws and if there’s a by-law about the keeping of animals, they’d be required to comply with the by-law. I’d also suggest contacting the local council about the situation to see if there are any local laws being breached by either the occupants in cars or cats freely roaming.
That said, I’m interested to know why the occupier is routinely having visitors sleep in their cars in visitor car parks. Does the occupant actually know the people and if so, why wouldn’t they allow the visitors to sleep on his couch? If you haven’t already done so, it might be worth having a discussion with the occupier and if they’re a tenant, also having a discussion with the landlord to let them know what is going on.
Putting by-laws aside there may also be a nuisance issue at play here in relation to the occupier. Refer to section 167 of the BCCM Act, which states that an occupier must not permit the use of common property in a way that causes a nuisance or hazard.
This post appears in the June 2021 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.
Chris Irons
Strata Solve
E: chris@stratasolve.com.au
P: 0419 805 898
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