› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Parking Peeves › Parking in a resident parking space › Current Page
Kiwipaul, I disagree with your advice in this instance as it doesn’t seem to match your usual wisdom.
First, I would not advise a new tenant to continue breaching a (possible) By-Law until the EC/OC/SM provides written evidence of it. As you have rightly said, it’s not their responsiblity. It’s the landlord’s or Leasing Agent’s responsibility, so Plasteck’s “people” are already on shaky ground. I would advise him to comply with what he has been told is the “rule” until his own people provide him a copy of the By-Laws.
Second, I would never advise a resident that “if others are breaking the rules you are entitled to as well”. Anyone who uses that excuse to me gets the response that it’s everyone’s duty to obey the By-Laws and it’s everone’s duty to uphold the By-Laws, so they have failed on two counts.
Third, one of the problems with the NSW Standard Residential Agreement (the Lease) is that it does NOT contain a clause requiring compliance with the By-Laws. Section 44(2) of the Act imposes a covenant on Lessees to obey the By-Laws, but what tenant ever reads the Act?
Plasteck, by all means post a copy of the By-Laws, but I don’t think the answer lies therein.
For instance, the model Pets By-Law requires that the OC “not unreasonably refuse permission” but no-one defines “unreasonableness”. So I’m not too hopeful that you will find a definition of “semi-permanent storage” in your By-Laws.
Strata living is not just governed by the Act and your scheme’s By-Laws but by common sense, consideration for others and the way your individual scheme “works” on a day-to-day basis. A few weeks observation is probably insufficient to correctly deduce that.
Finally, your description of your scheme sounds like utopia. Every lot has its own garage and there are three additional parking “areas” (not “spaces”, as I originally misunderstood). The spaces in these areas are so underutilised that you can drive off to work and have a reasonable expectation of finding the very same spot or another one vacant when you come home. And “during the day … most of the spots are empty”.
That description doesn’t gel with my knowledge of greedy strata developers, minimalistic Council requirements and (Sydney) land values.
Neither does it gel with your EC/OC/SM’s speedy response to finding an unknown car parked in the resident overflow area.
I note that you didn’t answer any of my previous questions, but I think some numerical information would be more helpful than a copy of the By-Laws.