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Today, I was letting a tradesman into our building when the owner of a car parked in a visitor’s space approached his vehicle. The owner of this car has been parking in visitor spaces illegally for years. He works in one of our commercial lots.
I said to the owner of the car that he could not park in visitors’ spaces as he worked in the building. He said he pays for a space in our underground garage and was parking in the visitor space to load a box in his boot. (That doesn’t’ make sense to me.) As he walked off, he said he was “going to sue me if he fell down the stairs” to where he works. He was very threatening in his manner.
I repeated that he was not allowed to park in visitor spots, particularly as he leases a car space in the lower garage. As I was leaving the loading dock, he came up to me in what I would call a very threatening and frightening manner, following me to the front door of our building, looking to see where I was going. I was shaking violently at this man’s aggressive behaviour.I reported this to our Strata Committee and Strata Manager. I have had no response. Should I call the police?
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I doubt that the police would be interested. Ultimately it comes down to whether other owners in the building regard their use and amenity of the common property to be diminished by this person parking in one of the visitor spaces. If it is rarely causing a problem for other people’s visitors, maybe the committee has judged it to not be worth pursuing or they have it low on a priority list of matters they are attending to.
If you don’t get a response, you could raise use of the visitor parking spaces as a matter for discussion at the next AGM. If others share your concern, you could offer to investigate solutions.
Sir Humphrey makes good sense. Raise the matter at the next AGM, assuming the parking you refer to is truly a problem. Include commentary as to what problems you have endured or witnessed – and for how many years – when illegal parking takes place.
You could fast track this by submitting a motion to the Strata Committee ASAP. Do not wait until you’re told there is an AGM coming up or worse, first hearing about the AGM when you receive the Agenda is the post, because by then you may be too late to submit a motion (note many strata schemes do not extend owners the courtesy to submit motions for listing in the Agenda of an AGM).
You could propose a by law to the effect that anyone who owns a lot or leases a lot or resides in a lot or works at a lot at the scheme irrespective of whether said lot has or does not have access to a car space (or spaces), is prohibited from using the visitors’ car spaces for any time for any reason without prior written approval from the Strata Committee.
In the above suggestion, “lot” includes both commercial and residential premises.
See what the strata committee come back to you with.
Unless there is a by-law covering behaviour of residents and their guests which is specifically and clearly being breached by the intimidating person, this is a civil matter, not a strata issue and should be dealt with by the police or courts.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
Ziggy, I will defer to Jimmy-T on the issue of intimidation.
As to the by-law, did the strata manager confirm to you that he/she received your by-law or motion? Did he/she confirm it would be included on the Agenda for the next general meeting?
You AGM changes will take too long, but proceed that way I guess if the changes will bring benefit to all in future. In the nearer term I’d think get the body corp to write to the person directly maybe if you can deliver or post it, and pop it on his windscreen if not, telling him to park in his spot, and please watch himself. And drop in that cops will be involved should any nonsense be continued. Cops are interested in curbing on-going nonsense and the thought that he has been personally mentioned to police because of this may be enough to calm the horses. If it does get out of hand and you feel to pursue it police might discuss with you the possible implementation of a court ordered peace and good conduct order – but that’s starting to be serious and you make prefer not going that far.
The original post referred to the area first as a visitor parking spot and then as the ‘loading dock’. The allegedly aggressive person was reported to be claiming to be parked there to load a box that he did not want to have to carry down stairs.
If the building has an area for loading things, perhaps this suggests that the architects recognised that it was not safe or practical to take awkward objects to and from vehicles in the basement parking area. If this is correct, then perhaps any by-law should be couched in terms of reasonable use of the loading dock area with time limits so as to not impede others who might want to use the area for loading purposes.
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