Parking is an issue throughout strata, exacerbated by the fact that you can’t clamp rogue parkers and you can’t have them towed away.

Hang on … is that still true?

One of the most common complaints is owners and tenants who have more cars than they have parking spaces using visitor parking or driveways.

Well, the good news is that if a vehicle is parked so that it is blocking common property then it can be moved provided sufficient notice is given.

This is what the Fair Trading Strata Living handbook says:

An owners corporation can move a vehicle that blocks an exit or entrance or otherwise obstructs the use of common property. An owners corporation can only move the vehicle after it has placed a notice on the vehicle (which is at least A4 in size and weather-proof and contains the same content as the notice required for removing abandoned goods).

The owners corporation can move the vehicle to another area of the common property or to the nearest place that it may be lawfully moved. The owners corporation should take due care not to damage the vehicle. The owners corporation can apply to the Tribunal to recover the costs that would typically be involved in moving the vehicle.

So there you have it.  Visitor parking and driveways are common property.  And just to make life easier for you, I have produced my own “Move it or lose it” poster.

As I said in a recent Forum post

I reckon a notice that complied with the regs, would be enough to scare most rogue parkers off.

If it didn’t, you could then decide whether you wanted to find out if it was legal or not by actually shifting the offending car and seeing what happened. I am not a lawyer but I think it would be worth a spin.  What’s the worst that could happen?

By the way, it would help greatly if you had a by-law that defined who could use visitor parking and for how long.  That way you can prove they are not a bona fide visitor and are therefor obstructing the use of common property.

Meanwhile I have created a “Move it or lose it” pdf form that you can download and print by clicking on that link.  You should check with your strata manager or lawyer before using it.  But at the very least it could be a bluff that’s unlikely to be called.

Fill in the form with the time and date, add the phone number of someone who doesn’t mind being verbally abused over the phone, take two pictures, one of the form on the car, the other of the car with the form on it, and see what happens.

I’d love to get some feedback from anyone who has tried this.