QLD Does Body Corporate Have the Right to Get Car Towed?

[Eilyk]

Can a residential/property manager or Body Corporate legally have a resident's car towed from a visitor's space in the car park if it has been parked there overnight (4 hour limit applies and is signed)? If they are aware of who the car belongs to and know which apartment you are from, are they required by law to at least notify you or make an attempt to notify you first or give you the option to move it?

I live in a hotel/apartment in the city and parked in the visitors spot overnight and my car had been towed by the morning. The cost to rent a car park here is $100/week and $400/month which I have at different times paid to rent for the month 4 times now in addition to the $610 a week rent we pay to live here. I have been living here for a year now and have at times ended up parking in the visitors spot overnight if I absolutely needed to however it is my boyfriend who mainly uses the car and we keep it at his place.

There is a 4 hour limit in the visitors spots here and they require you to go to reception and get a permit to go back and display in your car. Every single day any car parked in the assigned visitors spot gets issued with a notice on their car stating they are illegally parked and have been recorded as they have either not gone to reception or have parked longer than 4 hours.

There are always spare visitor parks and over half of the car park is always empty so there is never a necessity for the 4 hour limit. I was not notified prior or even after my car was towed and if they had contacted me first I would have removed it instantly.

Are they legally within their rights under property law to have your car towed and not notify you or are they making that decision without legally being allowed?

I haven't picked up my car from the tow company yet and I'm not sure what my next step should be so if anyone can help shed some light on these laws I would very much appreciate it.

 

[Sophea]

Hi there,

Under the BCCM Act, a body corporate must follow a process - issue a contravention notice and get an adjudicators order to enforce a by-law.

Where an occupier or their guest is parked in a visitor's carpark, its unlikely they will be within their rights to tow. They will require an adjudicator's order and generally adjudicators do not tend to enforce restrictions on the amount of time a visitor car park can be used.

If a car is parked in an exclusive use space belonging to another owner then that owner may have rights. However, if the body corporate is to enforce them, then the same process will apply.

So in short, no I don't believe they would have the legal right to tow your car.

 

[Phillip House]

Strange how someone who knows they are doing the wrong thing complains and they are protected by law but the person who suffers from their actions has no come back. The moral of the story seems to be, if you cant stop them, join them in the same crap attitude.