#24585
excathedra
Flatchatter

    Our parking garage dates from the mid sixties, and has managed to cope with to-day’s 4WDs, including the odd Land Cruiser or Range Rover provided they are carefully centred in their spaces. No-one has asked about creating a cage, and the EC, of which I am a member, would surely deny them permission.

    Recently, we have seen the advent of the first of the crew cab pickups that Jimmy mentioned. This leaves just enough space on either side, and it must be acknowledged that the truck is always well-centred in its space. However, its length is such that it encroaches by about 20 cm on to the common property — tolerable, but only barely so. For a while, the owner also parked a motorcycle between the truck and the wall, causing the truck to stick out quite a long way, inhibiting manoeuvres necessary to get even compact hatchbacks in and out of the spaces opposite and, in the view of most of us, breaching by-laws and a section of the NSW SSM Act.

    When taxed with this, the owner extracted sections of a Standard created in 2004, i e some 40 years after our garage was built, and told us that the truck stuck out because the space was shorter and the manoeuvring space was wider than the Standard set out, so what were we complaining about? We pointed out that we were not bound by a Standard that had not existed at the time of construction, and that the spaces were as registered as part of our Strata Plan. Wiser counsel seems to have prevailed, and he appears to have made other arrangements for the bike.

    There is just one space between the truck’s space and the end wall of the garage, currently used by a compact sedan. However, this space is linked to an apartment currently on the market. If the new owner drives a compact car, there should not be a problem. However, if their choice of vehicle turns out to be another crew cab, or perhaps one of today’s luxury-badged giant tarted-up farm implements, we shall observe proceedings with a degree of schadenfreude.