One of the longer-running sagas in this column a couple of years ago was about a selfish owner in a strata block who wanted to enclose their car space, meaning the person parking next to the space couldn’t open their car door.
Some clown at the Consumer Trader and Tenancy Tribunal had ruled that adjoining parking space owners had no right to open their car door if it crossed the white line between spaces and it took tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees over several years to sort out.
Unbelievably, it’s happened again.
QUESTION: One new owner in our building wants to enclose the car space next to mine. After their proposal was defeated unanimously at our AGM last year, they took us to the CTTT.
Despite the fact that adjoining car spaces will no longer comply with Australian Building Standards, a CTTT adjudicator has ruled in their favour, saying I have no right to use the adjoining air space to open my car door. This CTTT decision is contrary to three earlier cases on their own website. Is there anything I can do?
ANSWER: Where do they get these clots? The decision is wrong for so many reasons and you can and should fight it. For a start, you can ask for a re-hearing on the grounds that the decision was not fair and equitable.
Failing that, you can appeal to the District Court or even take it to the Supreme Court if you have the money and energy. Either way, talk to an experienced strata lawyer about your options.
According to strata lawyer and advocate Stephen Goddard, this is all about Fair Trading and the CTTT preferring to support “property rights” rather than community responsibility.
The CTTT lacks any consistency in its rulings. And far from offering low-cost, user-friendly solutions to strata problems it’s all too often a lottery: getting a logical decision depends on the luck of the adjudicator draw.
Take a look at “Send In The Clowns” for the previous story and meanwhile send your questions to mail@flatchat.com.au.