@Olivia said:
We have a small storage area in the basement and a by-law stating that only resident owners can use.
There’s part of your problem right there – tenants are entitled to have access to any part of common property that’s available to owner residents.
I’m a bit sensitive to this as I remember only just retrieving (as a tenant) a locked trunk from a storage room that the owner residents had decided should be for them only and, as a result, had decided to clear out any “rubbish” owned by tenants.
Tenants make up more than half the residents in strata. They have rights to use common property through their landlords.
I’m not sure why your storage room is not insurable but the answer may be to install cages and let them to all residents on a first come, first served basis, including any restrictions that you wish to impose.
If the area is too small for that, then perhaps you or a consortium of interested owners could buy it from the Owners Corp (at a fair price, under the usual strata law conditions) and then so as you wish with it.