Is it possible to "buy" an extra car space from body corporate?

Hi All

Long time reader, first time poster! Thanks for all your great discussions on here, has given lots of food for thought and answered questions over the years.

I own a unit that is part of a small strata complex (about 12 units in total). It has one garage belonging to it, and there are about 6 visitors car spaces at the back of the building.

Is it possible to "buy" one of the 6 visitor car spaces from strata / body corporate so I could own it as part of my unit title? How would I go about this? I feel I need to do a bit more than just calling up my strata manager and asking to buy one!

Any advice or discussion on this topic welcome!

Ruby

 

Short answer is sorta

Long answer is that you're more likely to get whats called 'exclusive use', meaning only your unit can use it. This would normally be raised at an AGM and needs to be agreed upon by other units.

 

Welcome @Ruby56. I'm not an expert but I looked into doing this with one of my places in Sydney a while back. From what I recall..

You may be able to negotiate exclusive use thought this probably won't improve the property value much.

IF the car spaces are on separate titles, buying one should be possible but will need approval from your strata committee (perhaps not such a hard case to make – tipping a few tens of thousands into the sining fund might be enough to get the yes.

If the car spaces are not on separate titles, you may be able to get one on title but it will cost to do so.

 

One of my unit blocks have a number of visitor carspaces but a bunch of those car spaces are permanently leased out to other parties. We as the owners get to share the rent out of those carspaces. In practical terms it decreases the amount we need to fork out for our own levies.

 

Thanks for your thoughts. The car spaces are not on separate titles unfortunately, however gaining exclusive use in an AGM might be a good first step before officially starting the steps to getting the title for a spot.

The apartment is in Sydney and having two car spots for a two bedroom apartment is quite rare in the area, so I'd be happy to tip in some $$ to the sinking fund for the privilege. Even happier not paying this as well

 

@Gockie, who manages the lease and do you have security locks on the visitor car spaces?
We have quite a number of spaces that can be leased out.

 

You will have more luck gaining exclusive usage via a change of by-laws as title doesn't sound possible here. First port of call would be seeking opinions from other owners and their support, so you can take it to a meeting and vote accordingly. Good luck and keep us posted as to how you go.

 

@Jacque Thanks! And yes that's what I've decided to do now.

I spoke to a strata lawyer and it will cost $1000 in legal fees / paperwork to get the by-law drafted and then getting this registered. But first point of call is asking the other owners their thoughts because I will need a special resolution to be passed for this to happen.

Another thing I need to check is the development conditions - the strata lawyer said the visitor carspots may have been a development condition when the building was built originally. If this is the case, this will make it harder to get through. Or means it could be easily overturned later even if I get a special resolution

 

Hi @inspiredbyprop, i'm not sure who manages it but probably the body corp might be the people to approach.
2. There are no locks on the car spaces. Each car space simply have signs saying its reserved. But you need a key to get into the car park, which means any Tom Dick and Harry off the street can't access them.

 

I was thinking that point too. If you look at the council requirements, there needs to x amount of spots allocated to visitor on new developments before it gets approved, and developers usually build the absolute minimum required as car spots simply aren't profitable in comparison to the rest of the development.

 

@neK I've put in a GIPA request with Council to get a copy of the development consent. Now waiting the 20 days for them to respond so I can find out! The strata lawyer said there's a difference between shared spots and designated visitors spots. I don't fully understand it yet, but am on my way to finding out!