Hello dollies! Offbeat way to deal with annoying neighbours

There are plenty of ways troublesome neighbours can get under your skin. If they do want to try it on, this is the perfect way to respond.

The question of who can park where is one of the most contentious in strata and the disputes can get very nasty very quickly. But what can you do when a neighbour insists in parking in the wrong space and it just happens to be yours.

Q: We have a tenant’s boyfriend who insists on parking in my parking space – because it’s next to hers – and the owners corporation (body corporate) says there’s nothing they can do as the boyfriend doesn’t live here.

I have been told that if you put a note on the car you could be accused of scratching it, and if anyone puts a sticker on the windscreen they would be liable if the driver had a crash because their vision was impeded.

I’ve also been told that we can’t block it in or tow it away. So what can we do to get this clown out of my parking spot?

A: Yes, our jails are full of committee members and building managers who put stickers on windscreens which then caused multiple vehicle pile-ups on the Harbour Bridge.

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Parking issues are a common strata problem. Picture: Dylan Robinson

Obviously, that’s not true but it is a fact that there are a lot of things you can’t do about rogue parking and there are consequences to the things you can do. For instance, if chummy is parking in your space, then he knows where your car is parked, so tread carefully and don’t let this escalate if you can avoid it.

Otherwise, it’s complicated, not least by the fact that the car space may be common property and therefore the building’s responsibility, or lot property and thus your problem.

If it’s the latter, then it’s between you and the tenant and your best and safest option for dealing with the problem would be to get owner’s corporation permission to install a pop-up bollard that you can lock in place whenever you drive out of the space.

It may be a pain in the butt to have to lock and unlock every time you drive in and out of the building, but less of a hassle than trying to find an alternative space that you are allowed to park in.

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It’s worth exploring whether the tenant is breaching strata by-laws.

THREATS AND WARNINGS

Eventually, when a less selfish resident moves into the neighbouring flat you can forget about the bollard and just leave it down.

If the parking space is on common property, the committee or strata manager can send a Notice To Comply to the tenant telling her that her visitor is breaching by-laws and, under strata law, she is responsible for their behaviour.

A Notice To Comply is an official form that can only be sent after a committee meeting approves it, or on the say-so of a strata manager. It is a warning with consequences.

It says comply with the by-laws or you could be fined (by the Tribunal, not the strata committee), so there is no need to send a warning before that, as many strata and building managers do.

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How you want to see your car spot when you come home at night.

Warning that they will receive a Notice To Comply is like warning someone that if they don’t stop misbehaving, they will get a warning.

For tenants, however, a Notice To Comply, has a potential double sting. If you are a renter and you are breaching by-laws, then you are probably in breach of your rental agreement.

That means if your landlord starts getting pressure from the strata committee to make you behave, and you have ignored a Notice To Comply and been fined by the Tribunal, they could theoretically issue you with a notice to quit.

In a time of rapidly rising rents and poor availability, that’s something you should consider when your friend with benefits parks in a neighbour’s space. One of those benefits is NOT parking their car where they like.

HELLO DOLLIES!

And finally, letting down tyres is stupid and dangerous, scratching paintwork is criminal damage and blocking the car in is illegal too. Cars can be towed in Queensland but in NSW it’s only if they are blocking common property.

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You could always given them the car showroom treatment. Picture: Supplied

The most elegant (and funniest) solution I have heard of was when someone used hydraulic car wheel dollies – the kind they use in car showrooms to move vehicles around – to put a car that was frequently blocking theirs in, to a space that would have been almost impossible to get out of.

But this is not a recommended solution. Stick to what the law allows and don’t make your car or yourself a target for someone who doesn’t care about right or wrong.

Strata Fact: Some parking spaces in apartment blocks are on the title of the apartment, some are on separate title also owned by the unit owner and some are common property, owned by the building with exclusive use rights attached.

Jimmy Thomson edits the Flat Chat website and you can go there to check out the latest strata news and views or send him a question anonymously, if you like – on [e-mail] and he’ll do his best to answer.

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Originally published as Hello dollies! Offbeat way to deal with annoying neighbours