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Common Property

What is exclusive use of common property?

Short answer

Exclusive use means one owner is given the sole right to use a defined part of the common property — such as a courtyard, storage area or parking space — while the area legally remains common property owned by all. Under the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW), that right is granted through a common property rights by-law, which the owners corporation makes by a special resolution at a general meeting. The by-law typically also sets out who maintains the area and bears its costs.

How an exclusive-use right is created

Because it hands one owner control of shared property, exclusive use is created formally, not by informal agreement:

  • The owners corporation passes a common property rights by-law by a special resolution at a general meeting.
  • Where the by-law is made at the request of, or for the benefit of, a particular owner, the Act generally requires that owner’s written consent to the by-law and its terms.
  • The by-law usually assigns responsibility for maintaining the area — and often the cost — to the owner who benefits from it.

The precise requirements sit in the Act’s by-law provisions, so a scheme setting one up should follow those sections carefully; getting the resolution or consent wrong can leave the by-law open to challenge.

What it does and doesn’t do

An exclusive-use by-law grants a right to use — it does not transfer ownership. The area stays common property; the owners corporation continues to own it, and the by-law simply attaches an exclusive right on top. That’s why the right is recorded in a by-law that can, in principle, be amended or repealed under the Act’s process, rather than being a permanent transfer of the land itself. Common examples include a courtyard adjoining a ground-floor lot, a rooftop area, or a designated parking or storage space.

Setting one up as a self-managed committee

A self-managed committee can grant exclusive use itself, provided it follows the special-resolution and consent steps and records the terms. Straita helps a committee handle that properly: capturing the request, tracking the by-law and the resolution that passed it, and holding the record of the maintenance and cost terms attached — so the right and its conditions are documented and survive a change of committee.

Primary sources