The matter was brought to our attention by a Reader. In his letter to the editorial office, he wrote:
“[…] for some time now, the owners of the garages on [Jezierskiego] Street have been trying to make life difficult for the residents of the nearby blocks of flats. Leaving home today, […] I noticed a notice reading: ‘No Entry! Private property of the garage owners. Passing through the garage area may result in a traffic accident. No walking dogs in the garage area. The garage owners’”
The no-entry sign was put up on the wall of one of the garage buildings. The ban applies to walking along the road (driveways) between the garages. For estate residents, this route is the shortest way to Biedronka and the town centre. The problem is compounded by the fact that the passage between the garages is practically the only route, as there is no pavement behind the garages. Residents also have no access to Staszica Street because it is blocked by a closed construction site (new blocks of flats are being built there and the developer has fenced off the area).
Who owns the garages and the land on which they stand?
The land and garages are privately owned. Of the 97 garages standing on the site, 96 are privately owned; only one garage belongs to Spółdzielnia Mieszkaniowa „Bolesławianka”.
– Under the law, land allocated for the construction of garages must be transferred into ownership – Piotr Hetel, president of SM „Bolesławianka”, told us. – The notarial deeds contain a provision calling for the owners of the garages to establish their own management body, but this is not mandatory and I do not know whether such a body has been established. We are therefore co-owners of this land, but only to a percentage.
Piotr Hetel believes that the no-entry ban is a kind of warning. The garage owners mainly complained about small children riding bicycles onto the road between the garages. This could result in a child being hit by a manoeuvring driver who might not notice them.
The president of „Bolesławianka” also explains the lack of a pavement. – There was an idea to build a pavement behind the garages – says Hetel. – But that land is private too, and constructing a passage required the consent of all the owners. One of them did not agree. Even talks with the mayor, who took an interest in the matter, did not help.
Do the owners have the right to prohibit entry to the area between the garages?
In the remainder of his letter, the Reader raises a very interesting question: do the garage owners have the right to prohibit entry onto the road between the buildings?
“My question is as follows. Can anyone forbid me to walk between the garages? I am not a lawyer, but I have been a driver for more than a dozen years and I know that a ban on pedestrian traffic is expressed by using road sign B-41, which is the sign that prohibits pedestrians from entering. However, it would make no sense to use it in a garage area, because how would one then reach one’s own garage door? If the entire garage area, including the road leading to it, belongs to these people, they should fence off the entire site. Another matter is the information about the threat of a traffic accident. […] This information can therefore be read literally as a threat, because an accident could be caused deliberately. Besides, a driver in the garage area does not travel at breakneck speed, does not take corners ‘using the handbrake’, and should watch out for pedestrians. Pedestrians, for their part, seeing a car, move off the road to allow it to pass or to enter or leave the garage.”
The owner of the land may put up any ban on their property, and this is lawful. On the other hand, for the ban to be respected, the land would have to be fenced off. The garage owners would have to fence it off at their own expense and thereby close it to pedestrians.
Any traffic accidents are governed by the Highway Code and other legal provisions. Thanks to compulsory third-party motor liability insurance, the insurer covers the costs incurred by the injured person. An additional ban, such as the no-entry ban described above, is not taken into account by the insurer, which assesses each case individually when determining the parties’ liability.
The situation appears to be at an impasse. The garage owners may put up a no-entry sign on their private property, while pedestrians, when there is no fence, may ignore it, treating it merely as information or a warning.