Northern Territory Second Reading Speeches

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UNIT TITLES AMENDMENT BILL 2005

Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.

The Unit Titles Amendment Bill came about following representation from private citizens and professional people who live in flats, units or apartments, or who manage bodies corporate. Their problem is the orderly parking of motor vehicles in allocated spaces in body corporate-managed areas. Under current legislation, there does not appear to be any means to resolve the unlawful parking of vehicles in body corporate areas. The amendment will address that.

While it can be criticised that this is legislation focused on only one aspect of possible wrongdoings in relation to the management of units, flats or apartments, it is a specific amendment that will help resolve one of the most vexing problems for units, flat or apartment dwellers and their body corporate managers. You all know that many Territorians live in flats, units, apartments - call it what you like - and their daily living is often infringed upon through unlawful parking. It is time we sorted this out.

I have sought industry consultation on this issue and, to a man or woman, industry has supported this amendment as long overdue. It is now timely in light of the high development rate of units or apartment complexes, especially in Darwin, and the potential of more apartment complexes being developed if and when the waterfront precinct is open for residential development. The amendment provides a process by which bodies corporate can exercise their right to ensure orderly parking in areas under their control.

In the first instance, let me give you a description of a problem which I am sure many Territorians who have lived in flats or units have experienced time and time again. When you purchase a flat, unit, or apartment, the parking spaces are allocated within the strata title. The rightful occupier of the unit, whether you are a tenant or an owner/occupier of the premises, has every expectation that the allocated parking space is always available to you. What frequently happens is that someone unlawfully parks in that allocated space so that you, the rightful occupant, is denied that space.

Imagine after a long day or long night here in parliament, going home at 11 pm or midnight, going to drive into your car parking space and find it occupied by another vehicle. What can you do? All you want to do is to get your car parked, get into your home, have a shower, get to bed, before you have to turn up next morning early to face another day in parliament – or in any other circumstance; you could be out there fishing and you want to go home and get to bed.

Instead, you come home, you find your space occupied by another vehicle and there is no other space available. If there, indeed, were spaces available, would you consider parking your car there, because all you are doing is passing your problem to another occupier or tenant in the complex? Is that fair? What are you going to do, apart from suffering the frustration of it? There is no one who can fix the problem for you. You ring the body corporate manager with a complaint and you are told that there is nothing that the body corporate can do.

The legislation, as it stands under the Unit Titles Act, does not cover that. The body corporate has no legal power to deal with a wrongfully parked vehicle. You ring a tow truck company and all you will get is a flat refusal by the company to be involved. They could be charged with tampering with a motor vehicle, or taking illegal possession of that vehicle if they did tow the wrongfully parked vehicle away. If you ring the police, they will tell you that it is a trivial and civil matter and they would not wish to be involved in it and, besides, they are too busy to be dealing with such matters anyway. There you are, in the middle of the night, wanting to finish it off with a decent sleep, and all you feel is the absolute frustration of nowhere to park your vehicle except on the street; that is, if you can find a parking space on the street. Then, all night you worry whether your car will safe parked on the street, that you do not get to your car next morning ready to go back to work to find that your car has been vandalised or, worse, stolen.

The issue of developers seeking and getting car parking waivers from the Development Consent Authority is another matter that may have contributed to the problems of people parking unlawfully, but that is a debate for another day. Suffice it to say that municipal or local councils need to address this carefully and negotiate with the Development Consent Authority. Commercial developments have good reasons to seek parking waivers based on the use of the building. However, with residential developments such as the units, flats or apartments, there should be adequate on-site parking for the residents in the complex.

This amendment also covers on-site parking areas that are not specifically allocated to the respective units but are in a common area for guests of residents in the complex. You often see abandoned cars, old trailers, even rotting boats abandoned in a car park - or appear to be abandoned in a car park - deteriorating in the weather. No one can do anything about it other than to declare the object an abandoned vehicle and then seek local council's approval to remove it - and that takes another bureaucratic process.

This amendment addresses these troublesome issues of unlawful on-site parking in flats or apartment complexes, and it is constructed in such a way that there is an escalating level of penalty for wrongful parking of a vehicle. The legislation empowers the body corporate to do several things to address the protection of the rights of the rightful occupant of the parking space. Following a complaint from the rightful occupant of a parking space, or where the offending vehicle is parked in a common area within the body corporate managed area, the complaint from anyone in the apartment complex will suffice. The body corporate may then provide, say, a gentle reminder to the owner of the offending vehicle not to park there unlawfully.

However, if the unlawful parking continues, the body corporate is empowered to seek the name and contact details of the registered owner of the vehicle from the Motor Vehicle Registrar, following which the body corporate may then issue a penalty notice not exceeding one penalty unit or the equivalent of $110 to the registered owner of the unlawfully parked vehicle. It is important that the body corporate is empowered to obtain the name and contact details of the registered owner of the offending vehicle. Currently, under the Information Act, specifically under the section entitled, 'Information Privacy Principles', MVR may not provide the name and contact details of the registered owner for privacy issues. Therefore, this amendment specifically addresses that and empowers the bodies corporate to get that information.

The body corporate may impose a penalty for each day the offending vehicle is unlawfully parked. Furthermore, the body corporate may issue a seven-day notice to the registered owner of the unlawfully parked vehicle that it will be removed from the premises. The amendment empowers the body corporate to recover from the registered owner of the unlawfully parked vehicle all associated costs in the issuing of the penalty notices including the penalty to park unlawfully and the removal of the vehicle.

The body corporate may engage a towing company to remove the vehicle and, once the vehicle is removed, the vehicle will be a matter to be decided by general law. I have deliberately constructed the amendment so that the police and local councils are not involved in the imposition of the penalty notice, nor the implementation of the removal of the offending vehicle - for obvious reason. The police are busy enough without having to be involved in such civil matters and councils are never keen anyway to be involved in this sort of thing.

Bodies corporate will need to amend their articles and house rules to enable them to use the powers that are provided within this amendment. I seek the support of all members of the Assembly on this amendment. It has been a long time coming. Many Territorians, as I have said, live in flats, units and apartments and they should have reasonable expectations that they can always park when they come home. Parking in lawfully allocated spaces is part of the normal and orderly living for all them, and this will improve what is now a dog's breakfast.

Debate adjourned.

 

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