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[Curly]

Hello All,

I came home from work and noticed a large amount of the common property lawn outside a nearby villa has been removed and the area prepared with formwork for concrete.

The lot owner and son, both fairly intimidating characters have been parking their cars in front of their garage and this adjacent grassed area since they moved in last year. 

Last year as Secretary of the SC I approached them about not parking on the lawn as it was damaging it. I explained that they should be parking in their garage and that extra vehicles should be parked on the street as should their visitors vehicles. Unfortunately nothing improved so I asked our strata manager to write to them warning that the next step would be the OC issuing a notice to comply.

I had a motion to issue a notice to comply included for our AGM.  I also got quotes for bollards to stop the parking on the lawn and presented this motion at the AGM. I provided photos of the cars and the damaged lawn at the AGM however after a heated debate both motions were rejected by the majority of owners. The villa owner also attended the meeting and was rather hostile saying there were more important issues than parking to worry about – totally ignoring the issue of the damaged lawn.

Most owners have numerous vehicles and park on common property in front of their garages, which the majority of our OC have decided isn’t an issue when it causes no damage and doesn’t impact anyone else. However now we fast forward to this week and the grassed area has been dug up.  No OC meeting held and no approval sought for this land grab.

I have sent an email to the Strata Manager advising that this unauthorised work is currently occuring and that if the OC chooses to ignore the proper process for dealing with this issue I will be taking the OC to Fair Trading. I have received no response, how long should I wait and what should I do next?

After four years I chose not to sit on the SC this year. 

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[Jimmy-T]

No by-law can be valid when it supersedes a superior law.

Number one, you could argue, turns common property into permanent parking spaces, which would be in violation of your Development Approval, and does not adequately compensate the owners corporation for removal of common property for use by individual owners.

Number two would be invalid because it infringes your legal right to photograph anything on or from public property, or from your private property, subject to specific laws related to behaviour that you would reasonably expect to be private (like bathing or sexual activity).  Technically, if you are on public land or your own property the law means you can photograph someone in their home washing their dishes, but not taking a shower. However, the owners corp can restrict behaviour on common property, so it’s all about where you stand when you are taking the pictures.

Like number one, number three also contravenes your DA and does not adequately compensate the owners corporation for removal of common property for use by individual owners. 

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[Curly]

Another update…. At our December AGM our motion that the OC seek compensation from the lot owner for the convertion of common property lawn to concrete was voted against by everyone else. No one apart from us cared that OC funds had been used!

Thankfully a motion about parking a car on common property 24 hours a day was modified to “only in front of an owner’s garage and not on the lawns” So now everyone including the guy who converted the common lawn to concrete (using OC funds) can park there legitimately even though it isn’t quite lined up with the front of his garage.

At the meeting he also denied that his garage has been converted to a habitable room even though the recent pest inspection report which was circulated clearly stated that it was.

There was heated discussion about the motion on banning taking photos – it certainly got very ugly and we were vilified for having taken photos of cars parked on the lawns and the damage it caused. Thankfully the motion didn’t get up nor did the motion some clown had about converting more lawn areas to concrete for parking, possibly only because the Strata Manager didn’t think it was a good idea to turn the complex into a concrete jungle and reminded owners that NCAT uses photos as evidence.

After the meeting as we were leaving one of the lot owners stopped us and told us we were nasty for taking photos and we should try to get on with our neighbours. The lot owner who had the lawn converted to concrete at the OC’s expense also passed on his good wishes yelling at us to “f**king get a life” as he drove past our villa. Nice!

So after all this I don’t think there is anything we can now progress to NCAT as the majority of owners clearly had no concerns with OC funds being used to convert the lawn to concrete for the benefit of a single lot owner.

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[Jimmy-T]

@Curly said:
So after all this I don’t think there is anything we can now progress to NCAT as the majority of owners clearly had no concerns with OC funds being used to convert the lawn to concrete for the benefit of a single lot owner.  

Not so.  As an individual owner, you can ask NCAT to overturn decisions that were either in breach of strata law or unfair (even if they were agreed by a majority).  An owner has been given a chunk common property land without compensating the Owners Corp.  There are precedents for this, meaning they should have to pay something (also that the OC should have sought permission from council) for changing the conditions under which the DA was granted.

That said, you might want to just let it go as you are in the minority and it isn’t going to make life any easier.

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