Chicane said:

Our villa complex has a mix of two and three bedroom units but there is only one garage per unit. Many of the units have two car owners so the parking problem is extreme. To make matters worse some unit owners have converted their garages to an extra bedroom/office/storage area. Is this acceptable or even legal? The body corporate isn't inclined to rock the boat but there are cars strewn all over any available space at night and manoeuvring your car through this chicane is definitely an accident waiting to happen. Solutions?

This is pretty tough.

If the owners corporation don't feel it's an issue & you are the only person who thinks parking & driving is an issue then it is an uphill battle you may never win.

You need to write to the executive committee and ask them to enforce the bylaws & not to allow parking on the common property driveway. It is my experience that if you point out the insurance ramifications that if the Exec comm does nothing & a child or person has an accident because the driver couldn't see then you may have a liability case against the exec comm. There is also the issue of decreased value of the units because it is such a mess. I've certainly been to open houses where there were cars parked everywhere & the potential buyers just walked away saying they wouldn't even look at a property because of the difficulties.

If you have tried dealing with this through the exec comm & no action has resulted you can apply to CTTT for an order to obey the bylaws.

It's a difficult call & you don't want to live in a complex where you are at war with your neighbours, but if they understand it can affect their sale price they might be more sensible

Sharyn Machin

https://www.stratachoice.com.au