Use of Land - 20091211

Today I attended a hearing in the Small Claims Tribunal. While waiting for my case to be called, another case was amusing enough to be recorded down.

The claimant was the owner of an apartment, whilst the defendant was the administration office of that estate. The claimant had parked his car in a lot, inside the estate, which he subsequently discovered was an official land. For the time being, the claimant continuously paid parking fee to the administration office until he found out the ownership of that plot of land. The claimant sued for the recovery of the parking fee spent.

Since the case was adjourned before the default judgment of mine had been obtained, its result was unknown. However, the claim was a good shot.

Laymen would presume that all the land inside an estate would be administered by the related estate developer. Nevertheless, if people have some knowledge to land law, they would realize that different pieces of land would be subjected to different restriction of use, say public open area have to be reserved in a private estate.

Turn back to the case I've heard. The administration office later posted "No Parking" notice in that parking lot. This notice could serve nothing but ridicule. The owner of this place was the government, and any action could only be taken by officials, and nobody else.