Abandoned car or parking madness?

When is an car abandoned?  When it’s left in a unit block tenant’s space, its number plates removed?  OK, but what if it is covered with a  tarpaulin? 

The tenant quite reasonably wants to use the parking space that he has paid for,  says the landlord, a Flat Chat reader who doesn’t want to have to reduce the rent to cover the loss of the car space.

But the owners corp says it’s not their responsibility and the police say, since it’s private property, they have no jurisdiction.

If the car was a wreck they say  you could reasonably assume it was abandoned and have it towed away.

But the tarpaulin strongly suggests the car has been left there, rather than abandoned and it doesn’t need number plates because it isn’t on the public highway.

Why would anyone do that?  Because they have a mate in the building who has offered them safe secure and free parking while they go away on holiday, perhaps.  Or maybe they are in the midst of a nasty break-up and their former partner wants their pride and joy because they know it will hurt.

Anyway, strata law is surprisingly accommodating when it comes to people who DON’T live in a building and leave their cars lying around wherever they feel like it.

It depends a lot on whether the car is truly abandoned (when you could have it towed) or just parked inconsiderately by someone wanting free, secure storage, albeit it at a stranger’s expense.

And there’s a whole other set of fairly complicated rules and regulations if it has been left behind by a previous tenant. Given that it’s not perishable and it has some value, the landlord has to store it for 14 days and give the previous notice that they plan to dispose of it.

But it’s not quite as simple as that (when is it ever?). For instance,  you can charge for the storage.  There’s more detail on this Fair Trading information page .

Meanwhile, advice from Flat Chat readers ranges from the highly dubious to the  outright illegal, including dragging it on to the street where the local council and police have to deal with it, moving it on to common property where the Owners Corp has to do something, or selling it for scrap.

So what would you do? Click her to find the original discussion on the Flat Chat Forum and tell us your cunning plan.

A version of this article has also appeared on the Sydney Morning Herald’s online pages and in the print edition of Domain.