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This isunusual. If there are designated parking areas for the use of residents the the OC should politely inform you of this. But I would find it hard to imagine calling parking a car in a parking area “storage”. And if the OC advises that residents are not to use the car parking fthe ongoing parking purposes or for everyday parking I would watch for those who do come home from work and park there on a regular basis because perhaps they arI then in breach.
Unless the by laws state that a resident can only use it once in a 24 hour period i can’t see how they can tell you to park elsewhere just because you don’t use your car every single day.
I am hearing you Bennifer!
Same here. I was on the committee for 10 years. Lots of work no thanks! Just complaints. But no mention when something fantastic happened. And yet the owners will come to the AGM year after year and complaint. They will complaint about something that they havent even mentioned to anyone! They will complain that the light in the common area doesnt work, they have noticed it not working for 6 months but have said nothing. Because that is apparently the responsibility of the EC to notice everything, even if it is within an owners lot or in a part of the complex they do not routinely pass by.
I had people contacting me for the most trivial things. And knocking on my door rather for anything and everything. Mostly they wanted me to give them permission or organise it now. I had one owner who bashed on my door to fix something immediately or they would hold be personally liable for the safety of their children. The problem was in the common area and was not an immediate threat to anyone. And there I was. I couldnt personally fix the problem. It would take phone calls to the relevant professionals. And phone calls to the SM. And it would take some time. So this owner then got his children and “parked” then on this part of the common area! Therefore subjecting them directly to this “danger”! Why should I have to put up with that? Together with everything else, that is why I am no longer on the committee.
We had alot of hard working people on the committee at one stage. All worked selflessly and gave up much of their free time to ensure that everyones unit and the complex as a whole was maintained. All this for no money and little thanks. Just complaints that not enough was done but too much money was spent despite the fact the our committee actually did alot of the work (cleaning, clearing, gardening) themselves. No there is no one doing any work on the EC of any kind. And our expenses have gone up and yet no maintenance is being done. Now they have something to complain about!
Cosmo, I actually find the residents who believe they have the space to park outside their garage a bit selfish. Why should they get to use a piece of common property exclusively without cost when those who can’t park outside their garages put in via their levies to maintain common property which, with cars parked there, could have ore wear and tear perhaps than other areas (for example tyre marks, oil stains and damage to garage doors which has happened here when someone parked then didn’t do a good handbrake release).
In the case of my friend, these cars not only cause problems getting around them, but there are cars parked there when he goes to work and when he comes home, so he doesn’t get to use those areas, can’t use the space infront of his, so why shouldn’t he feel that it isn’t right? If people want to use it, they should have to pay more! And I believe that if you allow someone to use common property just because you can, then you open a can of worms because everyone will use some common property without permissions or cost and you might find it difficult to take one to task when you haven’t questioned another. That is exactly what I indeed to do to my EC if they pull me up when they haven’t bothered with anyone else.
Am all for common property being used if the user pays for the privilege.
Well my car parking photographer friend has now amassed enough photos to have his own exhibition. Owners and residents are up in arms over their long standing cosy unofficial arrangement being challenged. Those who make their own parking arrangements have started up a movement to allow them to keep parking wherever they want. It would see that the rogue parkers are in the majority.
It looks like heading to an EGM. Can the majority vote to allow themselves to park on common property? Should there be an exclusive use clause for each unit and their respective parker? Should there be a risk assessment done to investigate the access to residents and emergency services vehicles (there has already been an accident where a car navigating the obstacle course of cars down the driveway has hit one)? Or can these owners get to increase their parking, despite limiting access for others? Not every unit has the space to allow cars parked in front of garages. To do so would block others getting in and out of their garages or parking in the driveway.
Or should I advise my friend to tr to get the wording that all owners would be allowed to park in the driveway. If he does so there would be a few rogue parkers who am I find they can’t get in or out
Had similar problem where the poor suckers on the EC, including myself, we’re left to put the bins out and bring them in each week. And as someone else did it, the other residents saw no need to actually place their rubbish into the bins, next to was enough because someone else did the bins. Nor did residents feel the need to wrap their rubbish because someone else did the bins. So we started up a bin roster. Each week a resident was responsible for taking the bins out and bringing them in. They could swap between themselves if their due date was not convenient. A reminder was left the day before for the resident due for duty that week. In our bylaws taken from the model bylaws said something like residents are responsible for the proper disposal of their waste and that bins had to be placed on the street. It didn’t say only one bin!
This system worked well with only a few people forgetting their bin night ( they were reassigned the bin night of the person who did it for them which was of course a member of the EC).But now we pay someone for this work. And now the rubbish is being left and not being wrapped correctly. Because it is for someone else to do.
Yclept. Thank you for be.ieving my postings a sensible and level headed. I can assure you my phone conversations in the past with out SM were also conducted in this manner in the first instance, and even the second.
However, when you have a SM who just approves and pays for repairs and puts them through your insurance without your knowledge, over and over again, and refused to give you the details of these repairs not even which unit, or they write to a company advising that the EC is unhappy with their services will not be using them anymore when we were infact happy and had not authorized this correspondence. when the SM would send out a trades person for a repair and tell them just knock on “Struggs” door, without notifying me nor finding out if I would even be there, on more occasions than I can remember, and would tell residents to not bother contacting them re repairs in the complex but to just knock on my door. Then the SM gave an owner who had destroyed common property permission to half fix it despite what the strata lawyer had instructed him to do, then yes all semblance of sensibility, level headedness, calmness and reasoning went right out the window. I can totally understand a SM overlooking this, or not getting around to that and having to be reminded. But not when one has to ring and ring and ring and ring.
So yes, I initially approached matters with a reminder phone call/email in a friendly manner. But there’s is only so long one can keep “smiling”. Then bad Struggs appears.
Excellent suggestion Boronia. This problem will exacerbate with the lack of regular council cleanups becoming the norm. Have made enquiries in my own area and have been told that the EC needs to organize with the council for a cleanup for the entire block. It seems inidividual strata owners/residents are to entitled to their own clean up as are the house dwellers. Have found this discrimination for us strata residents before. Despite the fact that in my complex we have units that are as large as a house, have as many residents as a house, has gardens and lawns (just smaller) and yet we are not entitled to even one cleanup.
In this complex where the EC could not organize a beer in brewery let alone the overdue maintenance issues (been a year since I brought it to their tension, should I send an anniversary card?). So there will be no cleanups for this complex. So many like me will be stuffing the bins full of items normally kept for those twice yearly cleanups. And those moving out will find the bins full and will dump even more stuff on common property for the rest of us to get rid of.
Why should an owners corp have to dispose of someone’s goods anyway? Now that man councils in Sydney no longer have regular council clean ups, these would lead to costs to the OC.
We had an incidence when some tenants moved out and left the most amazing array of “stuff” in the bins round the bin areas and sitting on top of the bins. I would like to advise those who want to dump their junk on common property to not leave identifiable content in their trash as these tenants did. There were documents, paperwork, books etc all with their names emblazoned on them. They left a concrete block, a brazier, and many other articles that were not suitable for residential waste bins, not to mention they had taken up most of the bins with other household goods. We contacted the agent managing the property. These people swore they did not leave anything and then sent us a letter from the mnister of their church saying they were good people.. Meantime we are left with a large amount of stuff, plus garbage bins full, a council cleanup months away, a council that fines for inappriate waste and tenants who have walked away scot free and left everyone else to clean up their mess and pay for the privilege. For me it all boils down to a lack of common sense and respect for others.