Can you park a trailer on a residential street

There’s a hull of a storm brewing over a raft of new rules north shore councils have shipped into their areas allowing them to tow a boat away if it’s parked in the same place for too long.

Hornsby joined an armada of six Sydney councils in October to declare their areas boat trailer impounding zones. The new laws make it illegal to park a boat trailer in the same spot on a residential street for more than 28 days.

Local fishing tackle store owner Andrew Hestelow who has been boating for over 40 years said it’s unfair to just target boats.

“It’s discriminatory, because it’s boat trailer specific, the laws don’t apply to caravans, horse floats, car trailers and box trailers,” he said.

Hornsby Council gets on average 10 complaints about boat trailers per year. There are 3090 boat trailers registered in the area and Ku-ring-gai has 1790 boat trailers registered.

In October 2016 there were 226,277 registered boat trailers in NSW.

“There was no demand for this move from the public,” Mr Hestelow said. “In 99 per cent of cases boat trailers parked on public roads cause no trouble at all and if they do, the owner can be contacted via Maritime by using the vessel’s registration number.”

Pedestrian Council Chairman Harold Scruby disagreed but has a sinking feeling about the new laws because they are “so full of holes that they would sink the Titanic”.

“It’s a $106 fine for being five minutes over the parking limit and they (rangers) can see you from Mars but with these trailers, that can be dangerous without proper reflectors, there is no fine, only impounding,” Mr Scruby said. “It’s near impossible to prove (that a boat has not moved) and incredibly expensive to enforce.

“If the owner has taken the numberplate off then the council doesn’t get any money back.”

A Ku-ring-gai Council spokeswoman said if a boat was moved through an intersection and returned to the same position it would comply with the new rules.

Hornsby

Mayor Steve Russell said it is a “welcome change”.

“Our streets have become a parking lot for boat owners who live throughout Sydney,” Cr Russell said. “They only come to use their boat a couple of times a year and the rest of the time their trailers clutter our streets.”

Rangers have discretion and will not penalise people who park their boat outside their own home, he said.

“The boat owners we take exception to are those from Newtown or Surry Hills who dump their trailer in Brooklyn or Berowra for most of the year,” Mr Russell said. “The boats become filthy breeding grounds for mosquitoes that lower the character of the entire area and we will not tolerate them any more.”

In Hornsby the net will be cast in early 2017.

Mosman

A Council spokeswoman said they are “proactively undertaking an educational campaign within some problematic streets in Mosman”.

“As with any enforcement, legislation is a tool to manage customer requests on an as-needs basis and it isn’t feasible for Council to monitor all boats and trailers parked in Mosman on a continuous basis unless there is a safety concern or Council receives a customer request,” Director Environment and Planning Craig Covich said.

North Sydney

On October 4, rangers recorded 78 boat trailers parked on their roads. By November 1, 30 had not moved and the owners were sent notifications advising them that their boats would be towed in 15 days if they were not relocated.

“It is too early to assess the effect of the new law, however, it is resource intensive to implement and we are concerned that as the law only requires boat trailer owners to move the trailer to another area, the core issues are not resolved,” a North Sydney Council spokeswoman said.

“Residents tell us they are frustrated by boat trailers for several reasons including:

· Boat trailers take up scarce on-street parking and they and their visitors can find it difficult to get a park on their street

· The trailers are perceived as unsightly

· The trailers can sometimes block driver sightlines creating road safety issues.

Ku-ring-gai Council will barge ahead with a zone to be enforced in February 2017.

The new rules

A Transport for NSW spokeswoman said the Impounding law was amended to start from July 2016 to allow councils and other enforcement officers to ‘opt in’ to take impounding action against boat trailers parked for more than 28 days within declared areas.

“It covers all boat trailers regardless of size,” she said.

“The NSW Government has allocated $5 million under the NSW Boating Now program to deliver new ideas that will help tackle the growing issue of long-term boat trailer parking in residential streets.”

Applications for the Boat Trailer Storage Grants Program closed on December 2.

“These are now being reviewed and the successful projects will be announced in early 2017,” she said.

More information about the new impounding powers are here: http://www.olg.nsw.gov.au/boattrailers.

A NSW man is worried cops won’t have the power to help after dealing with vehicles abandoned on the street for weeks at a time.

Alison Barrett and Jillian Barrett

Tennis bad boy Nick Kyrgios has sparked a neighbourhood war, with one “entitled” parking habit infuriating nearby residents.

This week, lawyers and real-life sisters Alison and Jillian Barrett from Maurice Blackburn advise on how to tackle vehicles and boats left for months on end in a NSW street with no parking restrictions.

Question:

I live on a street that doesn’t have any parking restrictions on one side of the road and so many people leave their boats, trailers and campervans parked there – for weeks, months, and even years at a time!

I’ve asked around the neighbours and no one in the community knows who owns them so I can only presume outsiders are making the most of the lack of parking restrictions and leaving them there.

What can I do about this? When I have visitors they have nowhere to park because of all the boats and trailers! – Devon, NSW

He asked around the neighbours and no one in the community knows who owns them. Picture: iStock

Answer:

We understand this would be very frustrating Devon.

From your question, it’s not clear what the size of the boats, vehicles and trailers are that have parked on your street, but if they are heavy or long vehicles, then you can make a report to police.

Generally speaking, in NSW heavy vehicles (with a gross vehicle mass of more than 4.5 tonnes) and long vehicles (7.5 metres or more in length) are not permitted to stop on a road in a built-up area for more than 1 hour. A person can be fined up to $2200 if they don’t comply with this.

If the vehicles and trailers are not registered and have been parked on the street for more than 15 days, police can seize the number plates and fine the owner. Police or your local council may even tow the vehicle to another location. You can do a registration search via the Service NSW website.

If the vehicles and trailers are not registered and have been parked on the street for more than 15 days, police can seize the number plates and fine the owner. Picture: iStock

If you think these vehicles have been abandoned then you can report them to Police Link or your local council. You’ll need to provide them with the exact location, details of the vehicle (such as make, model and colour), and the registration plate number.

Predominantly, local councils deal with parking restrictions on roads, and each local council will have different laws about this.

Wollongong City Council, for example, has no restrictions on caravans, motorhomes and boat trailers parking on streets, provided they are registered and are not heavy vehicles or long vehicles.

Local councils deal with parking restrictions on roads. Picture: iStock

Whereas Hornsby Shire Council has laws allowing boat trailers to be impounded if they are parked on a road for more than 28 days.

In November 2021, a new law passed the NSW parliament that will – once it is in effect – give councils and police more powers and penalties around unattended property left in public places, such as streets. This includes on-the-spot fines, higher court penalties, rapid seizure action and enforcement orders.

Parked caravan

In the meantime, you can lobby your local council to introduce parking restrictions on your street, for example limiting the permitted time to 2-4 hours during the day – and unlimited overnight – unless a resident parking permit is displayed.

This legal information is general in nature and should not be regarded as specific legal advice or relied upon. Persons requiring particular legal advice should consult a solicitor.

If you have a legal question you would like Alison and Jillian to answer, please email

Get more from Alison and Jillian on their Facebook page.

The battle between campervans and residents is one that has gone on for decades — holiday-makers search for spots to park their vehicles while locals aim to defend their precious views and streets.

But it turns out many large vehicles, including campervans, caravans, buses and other trailers, can be parked in residential streets indefinitely in Queensland.

Provided they are within certain height and length requirements, owners can park them for as long as they please.

Vehicles must be under 7.5 metres long and weigh less than 4.5 tonnes, and therefore not deemed a heavy vehicle.

The restriction rules out large motorhomes, caravans and trucks, but a number of smaller campervans, caravans and small buses still make the cut.

A Queensland councillor says while this might frustrate residents who've lost parks for weeks on end, those motorists are entirely within the law.

Gold Coast City Council's Hermann Vorster says the coast is one location that sees frequent complaints from residents about campervans and other large vehicles blocking up residential streets.

But the council is often unable to act.

"Gold Coast roads are no different to any roads in Queensland and under the Queensland road rules, so long as the vehicle is registered and not parked in a regulated zone with timed parking, it can remain there indefinitely," he said.

Rules don't apply to illegal campers

Mr Vorster said vehicles that exceeded the specified tonnage and metres did not belong in residential areas and owners would face fines if they were illegally parked.

"It would be hard to find anywhere to park indefinitely in most areas," he said.

"And you may find yourself at the pointy end of residents' complaints and a council officer visiting."

He said camping in vehicles and timed areas offer different restrictions and therefore the rules don't mean tourists can sleep in the vehicles.

"The road rules are quite separate from our local laws, which deal with illegal camping, so if people have a sleeping bag and are asleep in the back of their vehicle it's a pretty clear indicator that they're camping and it's not just simply parking going on," he said.

"So there are rules around camping, but if the vehicle's stored up on a site — say with friends and family — then, yeah, that's fine.

"Under the Queensland state government's road rules, you're treated no differently than any other passenger vehicle. 

"But if you do breach those limits, then different rules apply to you now."

According to Mr Vorster, the Gold Coast Council investigated whether the local government could implement its own set of regulations to better field constant complaints from residents.

"What we discovered is that it would be unlawful for councils to introduce regulations over and above what the road rules provide, because the Queensland road rules have precedent on anything that council could do," he said.

"So we are aware of the complaints, and we did try and regulate in the space. 

"But the state government had the final say and they wanted to preserve one set of rules across Queensland so if people were travelling from Cairns to Coolangatta, they weren't caught by a change that they weren't aware of."

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