VIC: Q&A What is the visitor parking spaces law – How many spaces are required?

This Q&A around visitor parking spaces law has been answered by Tony Overell, The Knight.

Question: What is the visitor parking spaces law in Victoria? How many visitor car spaces are required for a 20 lot building?

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We are owner/occupiers at an apartment building where there are twenty dwellings and a shared car park. Each unit has a strata titled outdoor parking space and 5 units have an undercover lockable garage space.

I have two questions:

1. What is the visitor parking spaces law in Victoria? How many visitor car spaces are required for a 20 lot building? And then 21 dwellings?
2. Are the body corporate laws overruled by council applications? For instance if an individual owner on the premises of 20 dwellings was granted an application to build a 21st apartment dwelling on their parking space in the car park (but the body corporate law clearly stated that anything beyond a vertical two meters is public property and therefore illegal to occupy by a single owner, in the case of building a 21st dwelling), would that body corporate law be overruled by the council approval?

Answer: In my experience it is up to the local council to determine visitor car park numbers which is evaluated on a case by case basis.

Parking in Owners Corporations is the cause of a number of disputes within Owners Corporation, not the least of which when someone parks their car in a space that belongs to someone else.

Ultimately, once the plan of subdivision is registered, which may note the locations of any car spaces on title for a particular lot, there is no further involvement by government into the number of car spaces available at a property (unless of course if a new or revised Plan of Subdivision is submitted to council).

In response to your first question, this may be best answered by a town planner however in my experience it is up to the local council to determine visitor car park numbers which is evaluated on a case by case basis. Some newer Owners Corporations registered over recent years in fact have no car parking at all, visitor or otherwise, so it all comes back to what council approve for a particular site at the development stage.

For your second question, anyone can make an application to council. It doesn’t mean it will be approved. Applications to council and the Owners Corporations Act are two separate matters however I will take your question to mean does the Owners Corporation Act 2006 overrule a council decision.

In short, a correctly made decision of council should be able to be executed (and also objected to), in these circumstances the council should ask for evidence that the Owners Corporation has approved the works requested in the council application (such as evidence that a special resolution has been passed to approve a planning or building permit).

Even though the Owners Corporation has given its permission does not mean the council will approve an application as they will need to measure the application against current planning requirements.

In your example, a Lot owner would only be able to apply to council to undertake building work within their existing Lot only. If their intended works were to extend past the Lot boundary, they would be entering Common Property (or possibly another Lot) and would therefore need permission from the Owners Corporation along with the other issues that arise if such permission were granted (entering into a lease or the disposal/sale of Common Property property for example).

I would suggest that you consider obtaining professional legal advice in relation to your second point as such situations can be quite complex and can transect many different Acts and Regulations that may be unique to your particular Owners Corporation.

Read next:
Q&A Do I need permission to renovate on a 2 lot subdivision Victoria?
VIC: Q&A Strata Maintenance Contracts Arranged by the Developer

This post appears in Strata News #163

Tony Overell,
The Knight
T: 03 9509 3144
E: tony@theknight.com.au

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