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Our 60s block has ten outdoor car spaces allocated to ten specific units. I am trying to establish if this situation is legitimate or not.
When a copy of the strata plan is acquired, no by-law about this is mentioned (but other special by-laws are, additional to the usual model by-laws).
I looked at the strata files and there are some ancient photocopies of notes about this but no indication that a resolution of any sort was passed and registered (yet there are details of other by-laws as described above).
The parking spaces are not shown in unit titles and the owners pay no extra strata fees while those of us with garages pay more.
Question: How can I find out what the official status of these parking spaces, please?
The issue is, the area needs refurbishing at a substantial cost to the Owners Corporation which will greatly benefit those with the seemingly free paring spaces, but there won't be much benefit for other owners.
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The department of Lands and Property management has (allegedly) all strata plans on file. Anything that hasn't been registered with the Lands Department (like handshake or verbal agreements) has little legal standing although there is a principle of accepted use over a number of years that could come into play. Anyway, they are your starting point. Just CLICK HERE.
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There are no standard (or “model”) By-Laws that cover the situation that you describe, although there may be Special By-Laws registered for your Strata Plan that grant exclusive use of those ten (10) parking spaces to the Proprietors of certain Units.
Special By-Laws are Plan / Property specific and arise from Resolutions taken at General Meetings of an Owners Corporation (e.g. AGM).
Further, depending upon the age of your Plan parking spaces may not be shown on the “unit titles”, but whether they're Common Property or part of Individual Lots (Units) will definitely be shown on the Title Document for your overall Strata Plan.
Assuming you're in NSW, use Jimmy T's link to the NSW Land & Property Management Authority (the old Land Titles Office) where you can for a small fee use their on-line Title Search facility to download everything you need to clarify the ownership of those parking spaces.
Parking spaces can be complicated. In our class B units in the ACT there are parking places with four different sorts of status. Some are entirely within the footprints of the unit/lot area on the unit plan. Others are on special 'unit subsidiaries' adjacent to unit areas. Then we have some large, shared parking areas on common land for the units that are not of the first two kinds. Originally none of the spaces were covered or allocated. The original planning guidelines at the time of construction required provision of 2 spaces per 3+ bedroom unit and one space per <3 bedroom unit. Some of those spaces remain uncovered and unallocated. Other spaces have been covered and allocated under a contract between the OC and particular owners. Individual owners receive a 'special privilege' for the exclusive use of particular spaces in exchange for agreeing to cover the OC's cost for the construction and maintenance of the carport over the space. The EC only allocates new spaces and approves further carport construction in line with the original planning guidelines so that spaces are not over allocated to some owners to the exclusion of other owners.
It seems to work though some owners don't like it when the EC decides all the common area carparks need a spruce up and the carport licensees will have to pay.
The NSW Office of Fair Trading just told me Strata Managers have two long years to register a new by-law once it is passed at a General Meeting of an Owners Corporation. This by-law would be in force, even though it wouldn't show up in a search for $70, I think, at the Dept of Lands. Seems quite ridiculous.
We had a couple of controversial by-laws approved by Special Resolution back in May (think air con in a cheaply built 60s block) at a heavily and inappropriately stacked and controversial Annual General Meeting. Our lightening-fast Strata Manager will have forgotten all about them by now and so will most others, is my guess.
Should I let sleeping dogs lie for two years and bank on the laws never being registered?