Help! Tight parking space in a strata scheme

[Daveske]

Hi all,

It's good that I stumbled across this great forum as this question has been plaguing me all week!

I recently purchased an IP for around 300k and I unfortunately didn't do my DD to the extent that it deserved. I'm about 2 weeks away from settlement and I just realised that my parking space is too tight to get the car in (and I have a very small car)! By this I mean, there is another car space roughly 3.5m directly behind my car space (at a slightly favourable skew), which by way of turning radius and car width/length would make it extremely hard to get the car in.

What measures can I take to have the impeding car move back a bit to allow more space in between the cars (i.e. change it from 3.5m to say 5.5m)? There is a bit of room that it can move back onto. I'd hazard a guess and say it would be the owners corp that would look into it. But really, it should be a no-brainer as it's not cool to have a owner not able to use his own parking space due to another space being too close! What can I do?? I don't want this issue affecting my tenancy potential

To put it in pictures: (my space is marked with x with the impeding car space below that on a slight skew) ... ignore the dots
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...... / /

Thanks for your help

 

[WinstonWolfe]

aren't you lucky you don't have to park your car there.

approach the body corporate. chances are they'll do nothing and do a Barb 'not my problem'

you might then talk to council to see what was originally approved. The BC may have approved or turned a blind eye to allowing additional and illegal parking spaces.

If the complex is quite old, maybe it was always like that, and your tenants will just have to adapt.

 

[Daveske]

aren't you lucky you don't have to park your car there.

approach the body corporate. chances are they'll do nothing and do a Barb 'not my problem'

you might then talk to council to see what was originally approved. The BC may have approved or turned a blind eye to allowing additional and illegal parking spaces.

If the complex is quite old, maybe it was always like that, and your tenants will just have to adapt.

Thanks for your reply!

The main reason why I didn't check the parking space when I did my inspections was because it was supposed to be a PPOR, but I had since changed my mind. I didn't plan on using a car as the place is close to public transport, so I didn't care too much about the parking space at the time, thinking why on earth would I possibly need to look at a few lines on the ground... how wrong was I?

I'm much more concerned that it will drive my rental price down or lower its demand significantly. It's not an obvious flaw (hey, I missed it!) and it's near great public transport so it might not be a huge concern to renters. Who knows!

I'm basing my thoughts on what was written on the floor plan included within the contract of sale package, so I'm guessing this is what the council had originally approved (way back in the 1970s). I don't know what they were smoking at the time but they must've been crazy if they thought something could squeeze into the spot.

I'll need to do a test park this weekend on site, as all tests I've done were theoretical and off site.

Keep the suggestions/ideas coming

 

[KateMelb]

Notwithstanding what the plan of subdivision says, it sounds like a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since. Why not politely approach the owner of the other car and explain your situation to them. They may well be happy to oblige.