Flat Chat Strata Forum Parking Peeves Current Page

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  • #7489

    Our strata agent insists that we are unable to do anything about a car abandoned in our car park. We may not have it towed-away/removed as we are obliged to await the car owner’s eventual return to retrieve the trespassing vehicle.

    I am wondering if the strata agent is correct or do we have rights in this situation?

    I welcome your information if possible. Thanks in advance.

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  • #13160

    MalmoSweden,
    I suggest a quick call to the Police Assistance line 131444 with the details of the abandoned vehicle would assist in this matter. There are some issues with having an abandoned car towed but your local Police should be able to guide the OC through this process.

    Though it is important to clarify where in the car park is the abandoned car parked?

    If the car is within an owner’s lot than there is little that the OC can do about this. The owner (if the car is not their’s) should be also able to contact the Police with respect to having the car removed as this is a matter of trespass.

    #13164
    Jimmy-T
    Keymaster

      I suggest a quick call to the Police Assistance line 131444 with the details of the abandoned vehicle would assist in this matter.

      This sounds like eminently sensible advice although, historically, police have been reluctant to enter 'private property' which in one case I know of  included roads within a multi-unit development.  It's worth a try and I'd be interested to hear how it pans out.

      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.
      #13172
      Sir Humphrey
      Strataguru

        We have dealt with a few apparently abandoned cars. The process differed depending on various factors. 

        1) the car was on common property. One phone call to the police fixed it because it was listed as stolen. 

        2) the car was not stolen but on the bit of 'our' road that is actually a public road. A phone call to 'Canberra connect' (general local govt. enquiries line) fixed it. They attached a warning notice and took the car away some time later. 

        3) the car was on common property, the police said it was not reported as stolen but it looked abandoned, had not moved for a years or so. Local govt. advised that we would have to follow a process outlined in the 'uncollected goods act'-fairly complex. We put a notice in the newsletter and it turned out to belong to a tenant who bought it for a relative just before the relative got ill etc. He still had plans for it and was quite entitled to park it in the general parking area. Eventually the car was fixed up and left. 

        #13179

        Thank you all for helpful feedback. I may now write in the past tense as the jalopy this morning has thankfully disappeared. I have been paying parking fees elsewhere for the past fortnight.

         

        The car was parked on my parking space, ie: the parking space on my title of ownership. So it was not parked on common property – I can see how any remedy might differ as between abandoned on common parts and abandoned on an owner's private space.

         

        From this helpful feedback I now see that an owner has no enforceable right where a car 'squats' on an owner's private space within a common property car park. There is no practical remedy that arises even if to all intents and purposes the law is on the side of the owner.

         

        So I would think that an owners' corporation could hardly object to owners installing collapsible bollards in light of the above.

         

        Thank you.

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