This week’s main forum question is about one of the three Ps that can blight strata life – Parties, Pets and Parking.
A Flatchatter and a neighbour have been allocated adjoining parking spots, but they are so small that if they both park at the same time they can’t open their doors.
He wonders if he has any recourse against the strata scheme to compel it provide usable parking spaces
This is a problem that’s becoming more frequent as buildings get older and cars get bigger. The issue with older buildings is, if they have parking spaces at all, they tend to be designed for smaller cars because cars were more compact back in the day.
When the Australian Standards decided to set a default measurement for parking spaces back in 1986, they based it on the dimensions of a 1976 Ford Falcon and the mistaken belief that it was unlikely that two cars of that size would be parked adjacent to each other.
The standard has since been revised twice, most recently way back in 2004, since when there has been a massive increase in the ownership of large SUVs as well as the number of people living in apartments.
There is currently a review underway of Australian Standards for parking spaces which was due to be released in June this year. It was looking at extending the default length of car spaces to accommodate larger vehicles – but that will only apply to spaces in new buildings where the planning laws mean developers have to comply with Australian Standards.
And it’s not just the size of the space that’s considered – there are turning circles and passing distances to be considered too.
Once again, the experts working on the updated standards are saying that it’s unlikely that you will see two monster utes parked side by side. They should take a walk through a modern apartment block car park.
Getting back to our Flatchatter, given that he and his neighbour both bought their apartments on the basis that they had parking, is the owners’ corp obliged to provide usable parking spaces?
That depends, and you can find out on what HERE.
How to ask and answer questions
Anyone can read our posts at any time, but you must be registered to ask or answer questions. However, there are so many easy ways you can search, access, ask questions and reply to others’ queries once you have registered using the green “register and sign in …” box on this page.
The best way may be to click on “Forum: Your Qs & A’s” on the top menu bar or on the drop-down menu (three lines) on the screen on phones and tablets, under the Strata Choice ad. Then click on the topic title that interests you, and off you go.
Alternatively, you can click on the new “Latest Qs and As” Forum button on the top right of a computer screen or the link on the “hamburger” menu on a phone.
Or look at the list of “Your latest questions and answers” under the ads on the right of the page on a computer screen. Or at the bottom, after the ads and stories, on a tablet or phone.
finally, you can go “old school” and go to the Forum Home Page and work your way through the topics there.
Whichever route you take to get there, the best way to keep up to speed with what’s happening is to register (if you haven’t already done so), then login and subscribe for free to the topics that interest you most. That way you’ll get an alert whenever the discussion moves forward, and you can also chip in with your own comments and questions. Have a look HERE at our instant guide to getting online.
› Forums › Current Page
FORUM: Parking can be one of the troublespots of strata living – especially when your car space is too small for your car.
[See the full post at: Forum: Car space is too small to park in]
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. 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. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
› Forums › Current Page
› Forums › Current Page