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[Wok]

A strata office building in North Sydney has 30 lots. 20 of these lots have the right to park one car each on common property (conferred by By-Law 31), the other 10 have no parking rights.I own 2 lots, one with car park,one without.Car park spaces in the building are subject to the State Parking Levy currently $2100 pa for each park.

All expenses related to car parking in the building, including the State parking levy are paid out of the Administrative Fund. Levies for the Admin Fund are paid by each lot based on unit entitlement.

Individual unit entitlements have been calculated on the basis of lot floor area with no allowance being made for the common property area on which exclusive parking rights have been conferred on the 20 lots. The common area used for parking represents approximately 15% of total building floor area.

There is an obvious unfairness towards the 10 owners without car parking as they are subsidising the 20 owners with car parks by being forced to contribute to the payment of the State Parking Levy.

Attempts to correct the situation have failed by vote of the 20 car park owners, 18 of whom are happy with the situation.

I have been to the CTTT, relying on the interpretation of By-Law 31 but have failed at adjudicator and appeal level because of factually incorrect information submitted by the OC.

Any ideas ????

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[Jimmy-T]

This sounds suspiciously like a “fraud on the minority” or whatever the correct legal term is – basically it’s a majority decision that falls within the rules of strata law but which is quite clearly intended to benefit one group of owners to the detriment of another. 

So, firstly, I think it falls outside the remit of strata law – and that is a good thing.  Your next move should be to chat with a lawyer about taking this to the District Court or even the Supreme Court where, unlike with the CTTT, you can have both costs and compensation awarded (if you win). 

I’d be looking to have all unfair payments refunded, backdated to when you first claimed, plus the costs of taking the action, plus an order to draw up a by-law removing the car park payment from the levies and making them part of a payment to the admin fund – as well as a commercial parking fee – payable by all of those who are allowed to park there.

Free parking is a luxury enough without forcing owners who don’t have this benefit to pay for part of it.

Talk to a lawyer, get an estimate of how much it would cost to run a case and then get the other non-parking owners to chip in to a fighting fund.

The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.

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