Hi Katie, the owners corporation cannot directly fine the villa owners. A fine can be issued by NCAT (New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal). There is a process.
First, get a copy of your strata plan’s by-laws. Hopefully, there is a by-law which says where they may or may not park a motor vehicle.
Second, if you find a by-law that has been breached: make a record of dates / times, car make and model, registration etc when you saw the visitor spaces being used. Photos with car registration numbers would be helpful.
Third, issue a “Notice of breach of by-law”. This is a form you can download from the NSW Fair Trading web site. Google it. You can only issue the notice if one of these is true:
- Strata manager decides to issue the notice
- The owners corporation passed a motion to issue the notice
- The strata committee passed a motion to issue the notice
With (2) and (3), there has to be a meeting of the owners corporation or strata committee. A majority vote is needed.
If you do NOT have a by-law which tells people where to park their cars, you need a meeting with a 75% majority vote, which is called a special resolution, to create a new by-law for your strata plan.
The notice is a warning. It tells the resident that they breached a specific by-law on a certain date. If they do it again over the next six months, the owners corporation is permitted to go to NCAT. NCAT will only accept your application for an order to fine the residents if you follow the above steps.
I can’t remember the fine but I think it is a maximum of $550. People usually change their behaviour after receiving the notice.
You can avoid holding a meeting if you convince your strata manager to issue the notice. In the past, I downloaded the form and completed it myself. Then I emailed it to the strata manager and asked him to serve it on the resident.
Has your strata committee held a meeting and voted to issue a notice to comply with a by-law already? You have to hold a meeting and produce the minutes if this becomes an NCAT application.