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Topic
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We have a new owner in our block who wants to enclose his undercover car space.
The parking spaces are under an elevated section of the building – not a basement and were never designed to be enclosed. There are a few sections of differing sizes, this particular area is built to house two cars – total width 4 metres 88 centimetres.
If this owner puts up a dividing wall down the centre of this area it will make use of the adjoining car space extremely difficult – reducing the useable width to 2.44 metres. While we park within the marked lines, it is accepted by all other owners that to give reasonable access, car doors are opened into the adjoining area.
This owner says it his space and he can enclose it if he wants too. My opinion is that the area was never designed to be enclosed – it is a parking space only, not a lock up garage and enclosing it will adversely affect the adjoining owner’s ability to utilise his designated parking space – both in driving into the space and entering/exiting a car.
The car currently parked there is a mid sized car, 1.8 m wide. This leaves .64 of a metre total or approx 30+ centimetres either side. If the driver can reverse in and leave just 20 centimetres on the passenger side (not easy) that will give him 40 centimetres to open his door against a concrete wall. I believe this is unreasonable.
Any thoughts on how to stop this?
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Replies
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Surely he can't just enclose this parking space. This would, I assume, be common property (the actual car parking area that is). There would be permissions to get – council, strata. I would think there would also need to be some sort of engineering? report to ensure any structure is secure and safe. And then probably a exclusive use clause to cover the repair of this structure, or alternatively, any damage caused to the building from installing this structure?
I am sure a strata lawyer could supply all the correct information. An owner or resident cannot change common property (without proper permissions) and I would think that this would fall under this.
Some parking spaces are common property, some are separately owned lots – depends on the building.
There's a block in the city that had this problem with one owner for several years, not helped by the CTTT moron who decreed that neighbouring car owners had no right to swing their car door over the adjoining space (in fact, I think they said it was “trespass”). It took a ridiculous amount of time and effort to get the decision reversed and then the removal of the cage implemented but it ended with the EC sending cuilders in to dismantle the cage and stack it in the middle of the selfish bastard's parking space.
Ther are several probable grounds on which this could be rejected even if the car space is a separate lot. For instance, they can be refused permission to fix anything to the floor, wall or ceiling, which are all common property. There may be a by-law that they have to comply with the look of the area. There could be local council plannig requirements and fire safety issues.
But really, if this person wants to assert their “right” to do as they please with no regard for their neighbours, they should be living in a house. There's a social contract involved in living in apartments and if this selfish sod doesn't want to accept that, they should go and live somewhere where they won't be bothering people who do.
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My situation is not too dissimilar, but the owners corp has provided permission. A metal bollard protecting a lot's outdoor air conditioning unit is just 11cm from the marked line of my car spot. The unit is on common property & was installed after the building was built, with the OC's approval. Needless to say, access to the car, especially entering & exiting, is very restricted on that side. My wife & I have even hurt ourselves at times.
Is there anything we can do about this?
An owners corporation may make a by-law that allows owners to install steel cages around their parking space in order to keep their storage materials secure so that they do not interfere with common property.However, this option presents problems such as – not all owners may want to install cages, the cages may interfere with common property and obstruct other owners' parking spaces.There are many cases which have required parking cages to be removed for the above reasons. Additionally, open parking spaces have not been designed to accommodate storage cages and the owners corporation may need to be updated on the strata plan if such cages are installed.Kind regards,
Simone Balsara
Lawyer
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