AH, Lady P got in before I could post this …
Look, those insurance and emergency issues are all kind of plausible scenarios but I think you need to go back to basics.
Put an item on the agenda of your next meeting that the committee agrees to issue a Notice To Comply to the miscreants for breaching whichever by-law you have that tells owners not to park on common property. And don’t let the chairman talk anyone out of it.
A Notice To Comply is a warning – stop breaking the by-laws or you could be fined – but it comes with a sting. If the culprits ignore it, they can be fined. So the committee is not issuing a penalty, it would just be progressing the matter to the next stage, as is required by strata law.
Now, if your Chairman is conflicted by this, he can vote against (and have that put in the minutes) or abstain. But if your chairman is blocking moves to solve a serious issue with untold consequences, he has gone from being a source of a solution to part of the problem.
Do not be deterred and if you get any resistance, explain to the chairman that even if he persuades other owners to give in to this selfish behaviour, you and other committee member/owners will take this directly to Fair Trading and on to NCAT where he can explain to them why he has been protecting his buddies.
Forget all the other stuff about insurances etc. If the chairman doesn’t want to enforce the by-laws of the building, especially when it’s for the benefit of the majority of owners, he should step down.
The only other thing is to make sure you use the correct form and that it is both filled in correctly and is backed by a motion on a strata committee agenda and minutes that indicate a majority of the committee agreed.