Question: Can an individual owner arrange to tow a resident’s vehicle from a visitor car space, or is towing only authorised by the body corporate committee?
Answer: If parking in the visitors’ spaces at your scheme, the committee needs to act upon this.
Here are the provisions about towing from section 163A of the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997:
163A Towing motor vehicles from common property
- Nothing in this Act prevents a body corporate for a community titles scheme from towing a motor vehicle from the common property for the scheme under another Act or otherwise according to law.
- If a motor vehicle owned or operated by the owner or occupier of a lot included in the scheme and parked in contravention of a by-law for the scheme is towed by the body corporate, the body corporate is not required to comply with a requirement under chapter 3, part 5, division 4.
- In this section — motor vehicle see the Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995, schedule 4.
You’ll note the above is framed as the body corporate, not an individual owner, doing the towing.
Given that, you might want to seek legal advice about whether an individual owner can (or should) tow a car. You might want to consider things such as what liability you might have for any damage to the vehicle or its contents during the towing, as well as how you know for sure someone is or isn’t a ‘resident’ or ‘visitor’ – neither ‘resident’ nor ‘visitor’ is defined under strata legislation.
If there are problems in your scheme with people parking in the visitors’ spaces, the committee needs to act upon this, especially if it is a contravention of the scheme by-laws. Moreover, visitor parking is a requirement of the local council, and non-compliant visitor parking may be a contravention of the development approval for the scheme.
This is general information only and (obviously) not legal advice.
This post appears in the October 2025 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.
Chris Irons Strata Solve E: chris@stratasolve.com.au P: 0419 805 898