Common Property Store Rooms

Alexandra – Are you an owner or a tenant?

If you are an owner you will need to do a couple of things before you mount a challenge to the users of the store rooms.

1. Check to see whether the store rooms are actually common property and are not on the title of the two users.

2. If the store rooms are common property then check through the records to see whether the store rooms users have been granted Exclusive Use of the common property.

3. Check also as to whether the two users of the store room have been granted a lease or a license to use the use the common property store rooms and if so when the lease or license expires.

When you are satisfied that the store rooms users are not using the store rooms with permission of the Owners Corporation then you will need to write a letter to the Secretary via the Strata Manager stating that you would like equal access to the storage area by a certain date (e.g. one month from when you write the letter). You could suggest that a by-law be written and submitted by the committee to the next general meeting outlining the ways that the storage rooms can be used by the owners.

You could suggest that access to each of the storage rooms be allocated to only 5 of the owners. That way, at any given time, each store room will only be able to be accessed by 5 owners. Tenants would need permission from their landlord to use this space. The rooms could be divided up dependent upon their size. 

If the committee do not address this issue then you could seek mediation via the Office of Fair Trading, and if not resolved then via the Tribunal and the NCAT route, OR you could continue along the path of trying to sort this out internally by submitting your own Motion at the next General Meeting for all owners to vote on, stating that the store rooms are to be available for use by all lot owners and that a by-law be created to allocate usage.

The explanatory material that you would need to submit could contain your findings and your suggestions.