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Doing a bit of digging into the saga of the abandoned car, mentioned here , based on this story in the SMH, we dug around and found that, yet again strata legislation that looks fine in print, just doesn’t work in real life.
The law says that OCs can move cars off common property if they put sufficient warning notices on vehicles that aren’t supposed to be there.
However, where do they move the cars to? In this particular case, the owners corp has received legal advice that they can’t just move the car on to a parking space on the street, as they could become liable for fines incurred there.
And they can’t find a tow-truck firm prepared to move the car to the nearest vacant, unrestricted spot or holding yard as they towies are worried about who pays if the car gets damaged.
If they pursue the owner of the car for costs, they could end up spending more than they’ll get back from the courts. It’s a mess that, it seems, no one is concerned about fixing.
Meanwhile the bright new day of councils patrolling strata car parking, that was supposed to be brought in on the back of new legislation, has turned out to me another false dawn.
According to my strata manager sources, few if any councils have shown any interest in pursuing it (Lane Cove being the sole exception).
We are now 18 months into the new laws Matt Kean, Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation (and Fair Trading), needs to launch an urgent review into which strata laws are working and which are causing more problems than they are solving.
It’s not just parking that’s a problem as, yet again, apartment owners are left to work things out for themselves and take ‘informal’ action to fill the gaps in inadequate laws.
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.
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