Tug-of-war over parking spot at estate goes to court

A legal tug-of-war over a parking spot in a plush seaside estate last week made its way to the High Court in the Western Cape, where a judge ended up ordering one resident to stick to the rules.

For more than a year, the Kingshaven Home Owners’ Association has been at loggerheads with one of its members, Phillipus Botha, over the estate’s parking rules.

Last March, the association took Botha to the Community Schemes Ombud in a bid to have him interdicted from parking anywhere other than on his own property.

The ombud refused on the basis that she did not have the power to issue the interdict, prompting the association to turn to the court.

The case was argued before Judge Ashley Binns-Ward on Monday and he delivered his ruling on Friday.

In explaining the background, the judge pointed out that Botha was in “obvious and undisputed” breach of the rules.

“[Botha’s] property on the estate has the amenity of a double garage. He has three vehicles, however, and the household equipment that he stores in his garages means that there is space to park only one of the vehicles inside them. Furthermore, the driveway area in front of his garages is not deep enough to accommodate a parked car,” he explained.

“In consequence, one of the vehicles is frequently parked in front of the house so that part of it extend out into the street and the other is parked in one of the parking bays on the estate that are reserved for visitors.”

In response to a number of complaints about Botha’s “persistent contravention of the rules”, the association had tried to persuade him to comply but its efforts had been “fruitless”.

Botha’s arguments included that the association was applying the rules in a discriminatory manner.

He had put up photographs of other vehicles parked regularly in visitors’ parking bays.

“I accept though that it seems likely that some of them probably belong to persons living on the estate,” Binns-ward said.

He found, however, that the association was still within its rights to take action against Botha whom the judge also ordered to pay the costs of the association’s suit.