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Some years ago the then Executive Committee passed a motion that of the six (6) visitor parking spaces three (3) could be used by both residents and/or visitors while the other three (3) were specifically for visitors.
Last week I obtained a printout of the Development Consent issued in 1979 for our Strata Development. It contains a number of special condions, including the following:
“provision shall be made for the parking of thirty (30) cars on the site, including six (6) visitor spaces for the residential units. Visitor spaces 4, 5 and 6 shall be provided as shown in red on the approved plans;”
Our Strata Plan also has three (3) commercial units which have their own parking spaces.
I believe that this requirement cannot be tampered with by way of a decision of the Executive Committee nor by passing a by-law. Is that correct?
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I do believe that somewhere on this forum it does say that if visitors car parks are part of the development consent for a complex then their use cannot be changed.
Do a search of the forums. If not in parking peeves try common property.
That’s right but the real issue is enforcement. The council aren’t going to send compliance officers around to check who’s using your visitor car spaces. However, if they know their DA has been breached, there will be fun and games the next time anyone in this building – or the OC itself – puts in a DA.
Also there is a simple principle that by-laws can’t overturn superior laws (in this case, the laws under which the DA was originally provided). In fact, unless I’m reading this wrong, the decision to hive off the parking spaces is illegal on that basis and should be struck off immediately.The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
Thanks for the reply, Jimmy.
It was never the intention to hive off the car parking spaces.
The problem is that lately more lots are being occupied by tenants with multiple cars who consider it ok to park in the visitor car parking spaces.
The owners of the tenanted lots need to tell their tenants not to park there.
Your advice will help the EC to get the point across that there is a legal issue at stake which the EC will enforce, if only by issuing invoices to the owners as suggested in your advice to someone else.
Best wishes
Jef
Jef said:
Some years ago the then Executive Committee passed a motion that of the six (6) visitor parking spaces three (3) could be used by both residents and/or visitors while the other three (3) were specifically for visitors.
Not trying to be a smartypants here, but declaring that three designated Visitor spaces can be used by residents sounds like 'hiving off' to me. Of course people with more cars than spaces are going to use them – did anyone seriously imagine anything else would happen?
If your EC is going to get all legal on rogue parkers, they really need to get their own house in order and scrap what sounds like an non-compliant decision to change the status of the visitor spaces.
I'm pretty sure that there are six visitor spaces because someone in the planning department has a formula based on the number of apartments in your building and likelihood of them being required. Just because a space is sometimes, even often, empty doesn't mean it's free.
And on the question of telling the landlords to tell their tenants not to park there, why jump through all those extra hoops?
The EC is entitled to write directly to tenants telling them that a) by parking in visitor car spaces they are breaching the building's by-laws and b) by breaching the by-laws they are in breach of their tenancy agreements and could be evicted.
I'm guessing that would get their attention.
And I hope the same diligence would be applied to owner-residents who also park illegally.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
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