Owners of a strata (any strata) generally fall into one of two categories. Those who follow the bylaws and those who don’t.
On the one hand, you have owners who understand the bylaws and follow them as well as they can. This is the majority, generally about 80% of the population. On the other side of the balance sheet, you have those who ignore the bylaws, finding them inconvenient or a nuisance.
Naturally, those who rigidly follow the bylaws, even when it gets in the way of life, get quite upset when they see others who don’t seem to care about following the bylaws.
You can see this at play in any setting where there are rules. Watch the parking lot at Walmart, for example. There are people who use the wheelchair parking spaces who obviously do it just for their own convenience. They may or may not have a disabled person tag in the windshield (please don’t bother me with that old winded argument that there are disabilities you can’t see, the tags are meant for mobility issues). These drivers spring out of their car and into the store without a care in the world about someone who may need that spot but now can’t park there. They also don’t care about the other folks who have to park sometimes quite a distance from the door, but do so because they recognize that rules are meant to create an orderly society for everyone.
When it comes to parking enforcement, strata councils can range from extreme to lenient. Windsor Garden has had both types. One council a number of years ago took the bylaws so literally that they fined every vehicle that was even one inch over the edge of their parking pad. Yes, they actually measured it!
On the other hand, some councils never tagged anyone.
As you can imagine, the first example caused a lot of frustration as this kind of rigidity was over the top and really doesn’t reflect what the bylaws were meant for.
But the second example led to massive parking problems because gradually everyone started to ignore the bylaws.
Clearly some kind of balance is important. You don’t want to give out a ticket because someone parks next to their unit for a few minutes because they are taking several bags of groceries into their unit. But some residents leave their vehicle parked in a visitor spot for days, showing a sense of entitlement that infuriates other owners.
The council that was in place prior to November 2022 tried to find a balance. Parking was enforced, but serious steps such as fines or towing were only applied when there were obvious or repeated violations that show a lack of interest in following the rules.
Even so, you can’t satisfy everyone. Some think that council isn’t doing enough. It’s true that there isn’t enough consistency in parking enforcement, but council members have full-time jobs, run businesses, and look after families, leaving little time for these tasks. And those who get ticketed think that council is being too rigid. So complaints tend to come in regardless of how much is done.
Complaints tend to come in regardless of how much is done.
There are other bylaws as well, such as storage of things in the common area behind each unit. Council understands that keeping a hose reel there makes sense, even though it could be considered “storage” if you were to get legalistic about it. They will also look the other way for temporary storage because, for example, you are in the middle of renovations. On the other hand, piling stuff there and leaving it there just because you don’t have somewhere else convenient to put it, needs some kind of action.
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