Guide
Parking on a builder floor: what is yours, what is shared, and what is a promise
Stilt parking is the most commonly misrepresented thing in a builder-floor sale. How allocation actually works, and the one line that turns a verbal assurance into a right.
Why parking causes more disputes than price
A stilt-plus-four building typically has room for three or four cars and four households who each own at least one. The arithmetic does not work, and it is resolved either in the deeds or in the stairwell.
Almost every builder-floor dispute we hear about between neighbours starts with parking. Almost none of them would have happened if the allocation had been written down at the time of sale.
The three arrangements you will meet
- Allotted and deeded. A specific stilt bay is named in your sale deed. This is the strongest position and the least common.
- Allotted informally. The builder told everyone which bay was theirs, and everyone has kept to it for years. Custom, not right. It survives until someone sells and the new owner reads the deed.
- Shared, first come. No allocation at all. Workable in a building with two cars, miserable in one with five.
There is a fourth arrangement worth naming because it is sold as though it were the first: 'the ground-floor owner has agreed you can use the second bay'. That is a private arrangement with a person who may move.
Covered, open and the difference in what it is worth
Covered stilt parking is worth materially more than an open bay on the driveway, and in the price analysis on this site each covered slot is one of the adjustments applied to the comparable rate.
Open parking in the setback is also worth having, but it is more likely to be common property, more likely to be contested, and in some colonies technically encroachment on space that municipal rules require to be kept clear.
What to ask, and when
Ask before you make an offer, not after. The questions are short.
- Is the parking named in the draft sale deed, and for which bay?
- Is it covered stilt, or open in the setback?
- How many bays exist and how many floors are there?
- If it is not deeded, what is the arrangement, and is the seller willing to have it written in?
A seller who will not put an assurance in writing has told you what the assurance is worth.
Frequently asked questions
Can parking be sold separately from the floor?
In practice it is transferred with the floor. What matters is whether the right is recorded in the deed. A bay that is not mentioned anywhere has been given to you by convention, not by law.
What if there are more cars than bays?
Then the deeded allocations decide it, and any household without one parks on the street. This is worth establishing before you buy, particularly in colonies with paid or permit street parking.