Visitor parking guidelines (Canberra)

Fortunately, our OC (a set of townhouses in the ACT with an interesting but different parking history) has not had much of this as a problem so I am not especially up to speed. 

JT mentions s.115. This is relevant. While often ignored, you could start getting pedantic about it for a while it would help. Subsection 2 says that subsection 1 operates like a rule, which is ACT-speak for ByLaw. So, you can enforce it, or threaten to do so. 

I agree that you could establish a rule as JT suggests. That requires a special resolution of a general meeting – A majority in favour and fewer than one third opposed. Let’s say you have 150 units. 100 take part in the meeting in person or by proxy or absentee vote. Of the 100 units represented at the meeting: 65 (>50, a majority) vote in favour, 30 vote no (fewer than one third of 100) and five abstain. That passes as a special resolution. The resolution only takes effect after it has been registered with the Land Titles Office. 

The time taken to discuss what would be reasonable in a rule could have the useful effect of establishing some reasonable, expected norms, even before you have a rule in place. If you are a small OC, you might have an informal meeting of all owners to kick ideas around. If you are a larger OC that might not be practical and you might need to mail out a discussion paper, invite comment etc. 

Assuming your OC has the default rules, you might use rule 5: “A unit owner must not use the common property, or permit it to be used, to interfere unreasonably with the use and enjoyment of the common property by an owner, occupier or user of another unit.” Note that rule 1 includes “owner, occupier or user, of a unit, includes an invitee or licensee of an owner, occupier or user of a unit.” From s.107(3) “If the unit owner does not occupy the unit, the owner is liable separately and together with an occupier of the unit for any breach of the rules of the owners corporation by the occupier, unless the owner proves that the owner took reasonable precautions and exercised appropriate care to prevent the breach.”

Using rule 5, just with the most unreasonable offenders could avoid getting bogged down in the difficulty of coming up with a perfect, perhaps impossible, rule that allows every conceivable reasonable use of the visitor parking while prohibiting every unreasonable use. [Perhaps a unit’s longer staying visitor is not unreasonable if it does not happen frequently.]

Habitually unreasonable parking would be a breach of rule 5 because it interferes “unreasonably with the use and enjoyment of the common property by an owner, occupier or user of another unit” by making it difficult for their visitors to park. If the OC has promulgated some informal guidelines on what is reasonable and not reasonable, it might be safer to use rule 5 occasionally rather than tie the OC up in knots over finding the perfect specific visitor parking rule. 

115 Corporate register—provision of information

(1)A unit owner must give the owners corporation for the units plan written notice of the details of any of the following events within 14 days after the event happens:

(a)the owner entering into an agreement to transfer the lease of the unit to someone else;

(b)the lodgment for registration, by the unit owner, of the instrument under which the person became the owner;

(c)a change in the owner’s name or address for correspondence;

(d)a change of occupancy of the unit;

(e)a vacancy in occupancy of the unit that is expected to be longer than a continuous period of 30 days.

Note Information about representatives of units owned by 2 or more part‑owners, or by a company, must be provided to the owners corporation under the following sections:

• s 11 (Part-owners of units—authorisation of representatives)

• s 13 (Company-owned units—authorisation of representatives).

(2)Subsection (1) may be enforced in the same way as a rule of the owners corporation.

(3)The Crown lessee for a declared land sublease must give the owners corporation for the units plan written notice of the details of any of the following events within 14 days after the event happens:

(a)the Crown lessee entering into an agreement to transfer an interest in the Crown lease to someone else (the new owner);

(b)the lodgment for registration of the transfer;

(c)a change in the Crown lessee’s name or address for correspondence.

(4)A person, other than a unit owner, may give the owners corporation written notice of the details of the following events:

(a)the person agreeing to transfer an interest in the lease of a unit or the common property to someone else;

(b)the lodgment for registration, by the person, of an instrument under which the person acquires an interest in a unit or the common property;

(c)the person acquiring an interest in a unit or the common property other than a registered interest;

(d)if the person has an interest in a unit or the common property—a change in the full name or address for correspondence of the person;

(e)a change in the nature of an interest held by the person in a unit or the common property, including the person’s ceasing to have the interest.

Note Information about mortgagees’ representatives must be provided to the owners corporation under the following sections:

• sch 3, s 3.23 (Voting by mortgagees)

• sch 3, s 3.24 (Mortgagee voting notices—amendment and revocation).