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Topic
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Hi,
I am a new to the forums and have a question related to my body corporate being able to tow the cars of residents who park in visitor-allocated car spaces:
My body corporate (Brisbane, Queensland) currently has an adjudication application for submission to the Magistrate’s Court to allow the them to tow any offending vehicle at the cost of the Lot owner or resident parked in a visitor-marked car space.
Can they have you car towed?
Any help, advice or information would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
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Replies
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It’s not easy to tow or clamp residents vehicles in any State in a Strata situation.
Why is your Body Corporate going to magistrates court as the fist steps are conciliation and then adjudication (as in NSW). Have they done this already and got a ruling.
Towing is virtually impossible without a well written bylaw in place and warning signs that residents are subject to said bylaw is this the case in your Strata? Evan with these features in place it is debatable whether towing is allowed and I’ve never seen a decision by a court to either support or oppose this ability.
You can obtain the number of Visitor Spaces from the Development Approval for the Body Corporate which the SM should have or from the council records.
Even if a bylaw is passed to tow ONLY resident vehicles can be towed because to tow a vehicle requires the drivers permission and as it’s a bylaw and all resident must comply with the bylaw the permission to tow is implied.
As I’ve said I’ve never seen a court ruling supporting this premise or rejecting it so it’s a bit in the air. You have also got the problem of getting a tow company to actually tow the vehicle because they could be accused of theft if they tow a non residents vehicle or even a residents vehicle if the resident take the issue to court.
This issue is legal nightmare.
A better solution is to go the conciliation and then adjudication and if they continue to park in the visitor bays a magistrates court can fine them a max of $44,000 plus costs.
@qwerty said:
Hi.I need the magic formula, would that be on the DA?
Regards
Unlikely
What on earth for it’s only advisory the important number is in the DA which the council specified when approval was granted. The current formula is meaningless because you are talking about a DA from 1989 to reduce the number in the DA you would have to get the council approval via an amendment to your DA.
The formula is just a guideline and actual number specified would depend on the actual development.
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