Thanks for the opinions.
To elaborate on Austman‘s helpful advice, I confirm that the registered plan of subdivision for this building do state “Interior face: All boundaries”.
So that confirms the application of the floor paint inside the lines delineating the boundary of a car lot is interior from a title perspective.
The registered rules for this building only has one rule that refers to the appearance of the interior of the lot visible from outside the lot. This is: “An owner or occupier of a Lot must not hang or place or permit to be hung or placed any garment or article of clothing sheet blanket or towel or other article on any part of the Common Property or on or from any part of the exterior of the lot including the balcony or such as to be visible from outside the Lot except as provided by the Owners Corporation.”
The only other rule about the view from the exterior is: “An owner or occupier must not place, display or hang any chattel item (including any item of clothing or any wind chimes) or any signage (including ‘for sale’, ‘lease’ or any business signage) on or from a balcony or similar or a window forming part of the Lot or Common Property.”
As the rules for this building, for example, does not prohibit “… to hang any curtains or drapes visible from the outside the building unless the side of those curtains or drapes visible from outside is lined in neutral tones …”, I understand that if a lot owner hangs a psychedelic coloured or other offensive curtain on the interior side of the window that faces the exterior of the building, the OC is not able to do anything about it.
Based on this last piece of information, I’ve re-read the rule (“An owner or occupier of a Lot must not in any way alter the external appearance of a Lot or any structure on a Lot including by any addition of any nature, change of colour, finish or decoration of any external wall or woodwork”) and, although I understand the viewpoints provided by Lady Penolope and Sir Humphrey, I feel that the word external to “external appearance of a Lot” has significance here. In my opinion, and without any legal experience or knowledge of any VCAT precedence, I don’t think the OC is able to demand the lot owner revert the painted interior of a lot to the original unfinished appearance.
