Common use areas and parking
Hi everyone,
Would love to get some thoughts and feedback on my current situation, any suggestions for handling the situation also welcome! This issue is slated for our upcoming strata AGM.
TLDR; neighbour wants free use of a common use area directly in front of our house for parking his car or having his trades park there, but demands the space be kept free if we use it. Is it reasonable for us to request a bylaw/rule from the strata group to ensure free access to the space at all times?
Apologies in advance for the long post - sharing as much detail as I can.
My family and I have moved into a new home in a strata group (not our first time in one). We have been here less than a month.
We are located at the back of our group with another property. There is a space directly in front of our front porch that is part of the shared driveway/common use area. It is not designated parking and we believe the purpose of it is to allow us to reverse out of our garage more easily. If our driveway is shaped like an "L" we are located right at the end of the bottom line, and our neighbour is located at the right angle. Parking in the space also means the driver stares directly into our front room.
Within our first few days of moving in, our neighbour approached us several times about not having our car parked there. He demanded we park on the street to keep the space free "for vendors" and visitors (its not visitor parking). We agreed and parked directly in front of our garage. This was apparently not acceptable either, and neither was my grandmother parking in the "visitors" spot.
We are now parking on the street as much as possible while we clear out our garage (where our car was always going to be parked) of junk after the move.
Since these interactions, our neighour has freely used the spot for his own car and demands that it be kept free for his tradies. We would be fine with this if cars being in this spot didn't a) make it difficult for us to get out of our garage, and b) if he didn’t treat the space as an extension of his own home for free use.
In talking to the other members of the strata group, we are not the first people to have issues with this neighbour and both of them have had their share of run ins with him over the years.
My question is - is it reasonable for us to ask for a rule or bylaw to be put in place by the strata group to clearly define use of this space? Is it possible for the strata group to apply rules to common use areas?
We are more than happy not to use the space and avoid doing so as much as possible - we are just hoping for some equal rules around use.
Any other suggestions on how to manage this situation would be much appreciated!
**EDIT: important for context on the dynamic with the neighbour but not relevant to the question. His demenour towards me on the first day we moved in was very friendly and welcoming. While I was unpacking on the first day, I called the police because I could hear what sounded like a serious domestic incident between him and his wife. He started in on the parking issue the next day.