I bought a place in the city, and everyone I talked to (other apartment owners, agent, lawyer) kept referring to the lane on the side of the apartment as "common property" as if it was something special, saying we had special rights to park there on weekends for free etc...and I thought (ignorantly, probably) well of course it is... what public space isn't common property (of the general public)? It's a road in the middle of the city for christ sake!
Anyway after taking a closer look at section 43 it hit me...I think it belongs to my apartment building. Yeah I'm slow, I know. Inside the building all the common areas, hallways, entrance is marked "Common Property", along with the lane on the side (just the one lane, not the other 3).
But I'm confused...this is a regular run of the mill lane. It looks like any other lane, regular people drive through there, park there, walk down it etc. How can this be private property? Maybe it's just my inexperience but I've never heard of this before. Or am I misunderstanding what it means for a road / lane to be owned by the building? Would the owners corp have the right to close it off one day for residents only? That would be unheard of in the middle of the CBD. If there's maintenance work required, would it be the responsibility of the building to repair it? Could the owners corp even...build on it? Or is there some rule to say that even if you own it you need to provide public access to it since it's part of vital public infrastructure (which it kind of is, it joins a few important roads and other lanes).
EDIT: Also in the annual general meeting notes I saw things like this, which I thought was puzzling at first:
"The manager has queried whether additional private parking signage could be put up in the laneway, as she has noticed a number of vehicles parked in the laneway without parking permits."
Again, this is totally run-of-the mill city road which makes this a little confusing.
Anyway after taking a closer look at section 43 it hit me...I think it belongs to my apartment building. Yeah I'm slow, I know. Inside the building all the common areas, hallways, entrance is marked "Common Property", along with the lane on the side (just the one lane, not the other 3).
But I'm confused...this is a regular run of the mill lane. It looks like any other lane, regular people drive through there, park there, walk down it etc. How can this be private property? Maybe it's just my inexperience but I've never heard of this before. Or am I misunderstanding what it means for a road / lane to be owned by the building? Would the owners corp have the right to close it off one day for residents only? That would be unheard of in the middle of the CBD. If there's maintenance work required, would it be the responsibility of the building to repair it? Could the owners corp even...build on it? Or is there some rule to say that even if you own it you need to provide public access to it since it's part of vital public infrastructure (which it kind of is, it joins a few important roads and other lanes).
EDIT: Also in the annual general meeting notes I saw things like this, which I thought was puzzling at first:
"The manager has queried whether additional private parking signage could be put up in the laneway, as she has noticed a number of vehicles parked in the laneway without parking permits."
Again, this is totally run-of-the mill city road which makes this a little confusing.