- This topic has 23 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 1 month ago by .
-
Topic
-
I live in an apartment complex that has 6 visitor parking spaces. There are serial offenders who work in the building (but don’t live here) who park in the spots on a regular basis. And now there are workers who park here then go to work on new building constructions at the school opposite our block.
In addition, it’s known that two people who don’t live/own here have fobs to our garages and are also using the visitor spots.
I have been trying for years to get our various Strata Committees to solve the problem. Their answer: “Too hard.”
I have written many emails to the SCs and Strata Managers laying out some rules re hours or days for bona fide visitors as to when they can park here. Plus, information for those who break our Bylaw. But to absolutely no avail.
How on earth do I stop illegal parking here please?
-
Replies
-
A Newsletter issued by the Strata Manager to all owners stating that these particular cars (and other offenders) will be issued a Notice to Comply if they continue to breach our Bylaw was regarded as not legally enforceable? Eh?
By whom? It’s not enforceable against the illegal parkers because they’re not residents of the building. It is enforceable against the company and the resident who lets them into the building. I suggest your strata manager contacts the nearest hospital’s spinal unit to see if they have any to spare.
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.
Re: Fobs being used by two non owners and non residents
Can’t everyone’s fob be reprogrammed? Everyone but the two so-and-sos with a useless fob, that is.
Doing that will leave them in the cold.
Re: Habitual illegal car parkers
I am unsure of all your options, but two things come to my mind:
1. Fine the wrong doers
Ask your friendly local council to issue fines to the trespasser (see https://www.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-construction/strata/living/parking). It would help if you have already taken photos of the illegally parked cars;
or
2. Install hurdles for the wrong doers
That would involve, in each visitor car space, installing a parking bollard, IMHO the “fold down” type makes sense.
These require a key in order to fold down. Installed in each car space, it will prevent anyone parking there who has not folded down the bollard. That is, any illegal parkers.
Owners/residents should be given a key to the bollards.
6 visitor spaces means 6 bollards. Ideally they are keyed the same, every owner/resident will be able to access all visitor spaces in order to allow a visitor to park.
The only downside is that a lot owner would have to leave his/her apartment in order to allow a visitor to park. Not really a hassle when you consider the upside: a car space which if not available to a particular visitor, at least is being used by another legitimate visitor(s).
A quick look online, granted I looked at just one website, reveals a cost from $95 per bollard plus (unspecified $ for) installation.
Re: Fobs being used by two non owners and non residents
Can’t everyone’s fob be reprogrammed? Everyone but the two so-and-sos with a useless fob, that is. doing that will leave them in the cold.
That would require the approval of the committee, which is not forthcoming in this instance.
Re: Habitual illegal car parkers
I am unsure of all your options, but two things come to my mind:
1. Fine the wrong doers
Ask your friendly local council to issue fines to the trespasser (see https://www.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-construction/strata/living/parking). It would help if you have already taken photos of the illegally parked cars;You have to have an agreement in place with your local council that they will patrol the car park – something that only happens in one or two blocks in the whole of NSW. That’s for the simple reason that it’s more hassle than it’s worth for both the LGA and the strata scheme. For instance, they will also ping residents who have accidentally parked over the lines in their spaces. In these days of monster utes in tiny parking spots, chaos would ensue
or
2. Install hurdles for the wrong doers
That would involve, in each visitor car space, installing a parking bollard, IMHO the “fold down” type makes sense. These require a key in order to fold down. Installed in each car space, it will prevent anyone parking there who has not folded down the bollard. That is, any illegal parkers. Owners/residents should be given a key to the bollards.
6 visitor spaces means 6 bollards. Ideally they are keyed the same, every owner/resident will be able to access all visitor spaces in order to allow a visitor to park.
The only downside is that a lot owner would have to leave his/her apartment in order to allow a visitor to park. Not really a hassle when you consider the upside: a car space which if not available to a particular visitor, at least is being used by another legitimate visitor(s).
Again, the committee in this case has decided to do nothing, so installing bollards isn’t going to fly. Also the owner with the commercial property would also have to be given a key.
What’s really needed is for the committee and the strata manager to stop taking the line of least resistance and issue a Notice To Comply to the lot owner every time one of his employees parks in visitor parking, then follow it up with an application for penalties at NCAT.
Not easy, it would be time consuming and potentially expensive but that is the only way to deal with this under current strata law (and, again, it would require a committee that was prepared to take action).
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.
I think the easiest solution is to check the bylaws in relation to the sharing of security devices. If the commercial lot owners are sharing / duplicating swipes/ fobs, take action against them in NCAT. It is often much less effort to just make things expensive and difficult for those who try to circumvent being a good compliant resident.
I think the easiest solution is to check the bylaws in relation to the sharing of security devices. If the commercial lot owners are sharing / duplicating swipes/ fobs, take action against them in NCAT. It is often much less effort to just make things expensive and difficult for those who try to circumvent being a good compliant resident.
I’ve never seen any such by-law but if the committee won’t even take action against obvious illegal parking they’re unlikely to go to the expense of drafting a by-law on electronic pass usage.
But you are fundamentally right – make it less easy and more expensive for the commercial owner to continue taking advantage of the rest of the building.
And the “simplest” way to do that is to ping them through Notices to Comply for inviting people into the block where they park illegally, then pursue fines for non-compliance, then let NCAT decide who is or isn’t a bona fide visitor.
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.
I’m more on the side of your strata committee – there isn’t a lot that can be done in a practical sense to solve this problem. But there are some things you can do to improve matters.
Firstly, you haven’t mentioned your by-laws… What do they say about this problem? There should be a detailed by-law in place setting out the parameters that govern your visitors parking spots. Is there a definition of “visitor”? How long may a visitor park? Can residents use these spots – or in other words, are residents clearly prohibited from parking in these bays and on the common property? You mention that workers to the residents are parking there – they might be considered a bona-fide “visitors” – especially if you don’t have a clear-cut definition of that in your by-laws.
So, I’d suggest your first step should be to review your by-laws and then, if necessary, suggest editing them to make the problematic parking clearly a breach of them. You might want to suggest suitable changes, and submit a motion for your next General meeting, to update your by-laws. Note that this will cost your building money.
Secondly, you say that you’ve asked the strata committee to fix the problem… What do you expect them to do?
They can basically only do two things – issue a breach of by-law notice to any resident or owner who is actually, and clearly breaching a by-law – hence my first point above.
Otherwise, they can put in place some physical means of managing your visitors parking spaces. Such as a boom gate, CC TV cameras, bollards, chains, signage etc. This will all cost money, maybe a lot, for just 6 Units… So you need to get the other owners on side if you want to proceed in this direction. They need to convince them that this is a problem that can be fixed, (which you indicated may not be easy), and they need to then decide to spend the money.
The suggestion about getting your local council to fine people is basically a non-starter. My strata committee approached our local council about this, but they aren’t interested in getting involved. I’ve asked around, and as far as I can tell, no council is doing this, apart from in special cases, where certain large commercial buildings have public parking bays. Even so, they would require the right signage to be displayed, etc, which will cost money. And council inspectors cannot determine who are visitors and who are not – they can police people overstaying the time limits, but that doesn’t seem to be your problem, and you may not have this specified in your by-laws, anyway.
So, have a big think, and rather than focus on the problem, you need to focus on a practical solution, and then work to bring this about…
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.