#19914
excathedra
Flatchatter

    I don’t think GeminiBabe was being ‘bolshy’ — or at least I hope not!  If you look at the Act, it says a lot about the Owners’ Corporation having to maintain the common property, but I couldn’t find anything about protecting occupants’ and visitors’ persons.  Similarly, the standard by-laws enjoin proper dress and clean language, and can be used to stop kids from skateboarding in the carpark, but say nothing about stopping people from driving dangerously. 

    My scheme has posted standard ‘shared area’ warning signs with a 10 km/h limit (realistically about as slow as a car can be driven; 5 km/h is barely a brisk walk) but it has no ‘black letter’ law behind it.  It was discussed at an Executive meeting and seemed an appropriate thing to do for various reasons.  No-one has questioned our action and we would probably have the common law on our side if it was challenged.  I don’t think we could measure speeds in the limited space available, and a smart lawyer could probably make mincemeat of us if it became an issue in determining liability in the event of a collision.  We could say, if challenged, that we had made an effort to bring about responsible behaviour.

    It would be interesting to know how this sort of thing is managed in public and semi-public (e g supermarket) carparks.