Platt v Ciriello

The matter of Platt v Ciriello involved the plaintiffs, who held title to a unit within a larger building, and the defendant, who resided in an adjacent unit. The plaintiffs brought the action to the Supreme Court of Queensland seeking relief from what they considered to be a real and substantial interference with their enjoyment of common property. The plaintiffs argued that the defendant’s conduct, which included the erection of a boundary fence, constituted an encroachment that significantly impacted their use and enjoyment of shared amenities.

The central legal issues before the court were whether the defendant's actions constituted an interference with the plaintiffs' exclusive use of common property under the Building Units Group Titles Act 1980, and if so, whether this interference was real and substantial. The court needed to determine the extent of the plaintiffs' rights to exclusive use and whether the defendant's actions crossed the line into an unlawful interference. This involved an interpretation of the statutory provisions of the Act concerning common property and exclusive use rights.

The court held that the plaintiffs had exclusive use rights to the common property as tenants in common and that these rights were indeed interfered with by the defendant's actions. The interference was deemed real and substantial as it effectively blocked access to a shared driveway, which was an integral part of the plaintiffs' use of the common property. The court found that the erection of the fence was not only an encroachment but also significantly impaired the plaintiffs' ability to use and enjoy the shared amenities. Consequently, the court ordered the defendant to remove the fence and to refrain from any further interference with the plaintiffs' exclusive use of the common property.