In a tale that seems almost too bizarre to be true, an Australian homeowner has been slapped with a hefty fine that has left her flabbergasted.

This situation also sparked a heated debate about the boundaries of private property rights and local council regulations.

Imagine being fined for sleeping on your property.

It's a scenario that Gold Coast local Belinda recently faced while she slept in her driveway.

Belinda's ordeal began when she was woken up by a council worker patrolling the area.

Belinda Lee Rose showed the fine in a video posted online. Image Credit: TikTok/Belinda Lee Rose

'Did you know it was illegal to sleep in your vehicle? Well, it is!' she prefaced.

'I got woken up at 1:30 am. A council worker must have been patrolling the area, and the little weasel must have called the police officer.'

'The two of them were at my door at 1:30 am, and they issued me with this notice,' Belinda shared in a video, showing the fine she received.

The notice for 'unlawful camping in a public place' slapped her with a $806 fine.

According to the Gold Coast City Council, the fine was for illegal camping.

The council defined illegal camping as sleeping or attempting to sleep overnight in a tent or motor vehicle.

The council's spokesperson stated that this includes public spaces like parks, roads, and driveways on public land between a private property boundary and the kerb.

They also mentioned that first-time offenders are usually given a warning and educated on appropriate places to sleep before being asked to move on.

However, the kicker was Belinda was parked on her property, in her own driveway.

'My house is currently in the process of being built, there's only a few things left to do, and yet I'm not allowed to stay in my van,' she explained.

Belinda's story sparked outrage and confusion among Australians.

Several comments expressed their disbelief and frustration over the rule.

'Don't drive tired, but also don't sleep or rest in your car,' one person sarcastically remarked.

'So they tell us to pull up and rest while travelling long distances… How hypocritical,' another agreed.

'So, if I set up a tent in the backyard and camp out with my kids, will I get a fine, too? How is this any different?' a third asked in disbelief.

'What we do on our property is no one's business.'

'Don't pay, take it to court, show you are the owner of the property, make them apologise, and ask them to pay costs for court and your wasted time,' one suggested.

'That's appalling. They shouldn't even have been stepping on your private property,' a commenter agreed.

Watch Belinda Lee Rose's story here:

Source: @belindaleerose/TikTok​

Homeowners need to be aware of their local council's rules to avoid fines.

However, it's equally essential for councils to exercise discretion and consider the context before issuing fines.

Belinda's case should be a cautionary tale for all of us.

It's a reminder to stay informed about our rights and to challenge decisions that seem unfair or unreasonable.

Key Takeaways

• A Queensland homeowner was fined $806 for sleeping in her van parked in her driveway.
• The woman argued that she was not unlawfully camping in a public place as she was on her property.
• Several comments expressed their confusion and frustration over the regulations that led to her fine.
• The Gold Coast City Council clarified their stance, stating that regular patrols are conducted for illegal camping and sleeping in vehicles on public land, which includes driveways on public land between a private property boundary and the kerb.

We would love to hear your thoughts on this matter. Have you ever faced an unexpected fine on your property? How did you handle it? Share your experiences in the comments below.

 

[Benny's Light]

How ridiculous! As kids we would sleep in the tent outside for fun but have the safety of home. I also, when travelling alone to my parents house in Sydney from the country town where I worked 700 km away would stop for a quick nap in a rest stop if I was getting a bit tried, to avoid falling asleep at the wheel. How ridiculous this world has become. Common sense has disappeared.

 

[mylittletibbies]

If you read it again you will find she was on public property like nature strip which means she can be fined...funny how she has garnered sympathy from strangers who don't know the full story.

If YOU read it again you will see "The kicker was Belinda was parked on her own property, in her own drivewsy""
They said you "could" be fined for parking and sleeping on public property, verge, etc. , not that she was.
It clearly states she was on her own property.

 

[Towing]

I

If you read it again you will find she was on public property like nature strip which means she can be fined...funny how she has garnered sympathy from strangers who don't know the full story.

It says she was parked in her driveway on HER property. It says public property on the sticker. I'm surprised there was a Council patrol in the middle of the night. If she is illegally parked over a driveway outside the boundary the Police could probably fine her too........however try to get the Council or Police to fine a vehicle owner from parking facing the wrong way with expired Registration which at that time meant no CTP in SA. Both said to contact the other. It sat there for weeks before it was eventually stickered/fined. The guy must have looked inside her car.

 

[HelenB55]

So this woman gets fined for sleeping in her own car on her own property…..

What about all the Homeless people who sleep on the streets?

Do they cop a fine as well?

 

[mylittletibbies]

I take it as a driveway is your own land. Unless I’m still reading it wrong.

No, you're right
It clearly states she was in her driveway, on her own land.
Nowhere does it say she was on the verge it just says you can be fined if you park and sleep on the verge.

 

[Catherines]

We are becoming a police state

Abuse of OFFICIAL RULES/REGULATIONS does not mean “we are becoming a police state”.

 

[Gunpark]

If you read it again you will find she was on public property like nature strip which means she can be fined...funny how she has garnered sympathy from strangers who don't know the full story.

She says she was on her property in her own driveway. I would say, "see you in court".

 

[Kayer02]

All councils/local governments should be removed. They are not constitutionally valid apart from being an unnecessary third tier of government!

Once people are on the Council the power goes to their head.. They are only there for their own agendas.. A mob of pathetic morons. Get rid of Councils, I have very little respect for them.. If it was a member of their own family they would turn a blind eye to it..

 

[mOiOz]

Abuse of OFFICIAL RULES/REGULATIONS does not mean “we are becoming a police state”.

Even if the Rule is correct, why is a woman who is forced to sleep in a car, because her home is currently unlivable, get a fine of $800, but someone who stole a car and injured people after a police chase... gets a slap on the wrist and a chance to do it again???
Police state or not... it's simply infuriating!!!

 

[BruceC]

If you read it again you will find she was on public property like nature strip which means she can be fined...funny how she has garnered sympathy from strangers who don't know the full story.

Where in the item does it state she was on the Nature Strip?
It actually states she was in her driveway!
So before comment at least get your facts correct!

 

[June E]

Money grabbing council's why do they need a council patrol person working at night ? Oh yes of course to collect a few fines to pay him and also line their pockets ! I hope this person fights them !

 

[squat]

How many months did she sleep IN her car must have been a good Neighbour that Dobbed Her IN

 

[Mikeyboy2012]

Authority gone mad. Where is common sense and the use of discretion? Not to mention having empathy and care for your constituents/citizens.

Fair dinkum, this is ridiculous.

Go do something useful and beneficial for our society and stop being trivial and sticking your nose where it doesn't belong.

 

[Gerrit H. Schorel-Hlavka]

As I wrote [previously QUOTE
Natalie & Matt, I noticed your report at about 09.40am 2-4-2025 about a woman fined for allegedly sleeping in her own caravan even so she claims to have been reading. The real issues is if any council can fine a person using their own property! As a constitutionalist I do not accept this to be so and in September 2023 Banyule City council started a campaign against me, even claiming I cannot park my own car in my own driveway behind closed gates as it claimed I only can park in my garage. I made clear it is nonsense and on 25 October 2023 they then involved lawyers. Despite their reign of terror since, including harming my (now late) wife Olga Hlavka-Schorel I never gave up, and so far they achieved nothing against me. The issue is that municipal/shire councils have no legislative powers (See Municipal of sydney versus Commonwealth HCA 1904 and also

QUOTE 20250320 CORRESPONDENCE

For any farmer, etc, their FEE SIMPLE rights are also robbed as now (albeit unconstitutionally) they are forced to pay huge sums of moneys to Aboriginals for being permitted to put a post at a certain depth, clearly violating the Commonwealth v New South Wales [1923] HCA 34 (1923) 33 CLR 1 (9 August 1923) decision as to FEE SIMPLE right

https://constitutionwatch.com.au/fee-simple/ttps://constitutionwatch.com.au/fee-simple/

Commonwealth v New South Wales [1923] HCA 34 (1923) 33 CLR 1 (9 August 1923)

HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

KNOX C.J., ISAACS, HIGGINS, GAVAN DUFFY AND STARKE JJ.

THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA PLAINTIFF against

THE STATE OF NEW SOUTH WALES AND ANOTHER DEFENDANTS

1920-1923: SYDNEY, Dec. 1-3, 1920; Mar. 21-29, 1922; Aug. 9, 1923 33 CLR 1

Extracts from Commonwealth Law Reports Volume 33 / 33 CLR 1:- (1920) 33 CLR 1 at 42

QUOTE

“It confers, and since the beginning of legal history it always has conferred, the lawful right to exercise over, upon, and in respect to, the land, every act of ownership which can enter into the imagination, including the right to commit unlimited waste; and, for all practical purposes of ownership, it differs from the absolute dominion of a chattel, in nothing except the physical indestructibility of its subject.”

“Besides these rights of ownership, a fee simple at the present day confers an absolute right, both of alienation inter vivos and of devise by will.”

END QUOTE

And

QUOTE

ISAACS J. In Challis's Real Property, 3rd ed., p. 218,

it is stated with perfect accuracy:—

“In the language of the English law, the word fee signifies an estate of inheritance as distinguished from a less estate; not, as in the language of the feudists, a subject of tenure as distinguished from an allodium.”

“Allodium being wholly unknown to English law, the latter distinction would in fact have no meaning.” “A fee simple is the most extensive in quantum, and the most absolute in respect to the rights which it confers, of all estates known to the law.”

END QUOTE



Again

“A fee simple is the most extensive in quantum, and the most absolute in respect to the rights which it confers, of all estates known to the law.”



END QUOTE 20250320 CORRESPONDENCE



What a person does using their FEE SIMPLE property is up to the property owner (so the tenant) albeit tenants can be restricted by the property owner as to usage.



I stopped paying the so called "council rates" about 2 years ago making clear it is an unconstitutional "State Land Taxation" as since 11-11-1910 States no longer can exercise any legislative powers regarding state land taxation. Purported "council rates" are deemed to be "State Land Taxation".

Likewise, I made clear that the State Mandates (regarding the covid scam) were and remain to be unconstitutional since 1908.

You can find extensive writings about this at my blog https://www.scribd.com/inspectorrikati and I make clear I do not charge for anyone downloading my writings!

Be free to contact me and I do neither charge for this! I am retired and a senior citizen!

END QUOTE 20250320 CORRESPONDENCE



I stopped paying the so called "council rates" about 2 years ago making clear it is an unconstitutional "State Land Taxation" as since 11-11-1910 States no longer can exercise any legislative powers regarding state land taxation. Purported "council rates" are deemed to be "State Land Taxation".

Likewise, I made clear that the State Mandates (regarding the covid scam) were and remain to be unconstitutional since 1908.

You can find extensive writings about this at my blog https://www.scribd.com/inspectorrikati and I make clear I do not charge for anyone downloading my writings!

Be free to contact me and I do neither charge for this! I am retired and a senior citizen!
END QUOTE

 

[Luckyus]

Typical council FUBS?

 

[Aussie all the Way]

It could only happen in Queensland, hence why I would never move there, also the weather is shit.

 

[Kevin. A.]

I think it is hypocritical we are told to pull over off the road if we are tired and yet councils are telling us it illegal and you can be fined. If you are on your own property, then it has nothing to do with council. It makes you wonder what a council employee is doing patrolling around the streets at 1:30am in the morning. Haven't the council got better things for their employees to be doing?

 

[MariaG]

If you read it again you will find she was on public property like nature strip which means she can be fined...funny how she has garnered sympathy from strangers who don't know the full story.

I just read it again, and all I could was see was that she was in her driveway. What am I missing?

 

[IAN3005]

No, a driveway usually extends to the edge of the kerb at the road. You are responsible, as a home owner, for maintenance of the footpath area even though that section is legally council land. From the front BOUNDARY to the back and side boundaries of your property is YOUR land and you can do what you like on YOUR property provided it does not impinge in any way on your neighbour’s property (as in plant trees that overhang, destroy fences or push their roots into your neighbour’s land). Correct me if I am wrong but I believe that to be the law in all states. The same goes for council trees that have a similar effect on your property boundaries. They MUST cut any overhang or rectify any root damage THEIR trees may have on your land.

If this woman was sleeping in her car and any part of it (including just the bumper) was outside her property boundary then council and police were correct in fining her but they could just as easily have asked her to move completely inside her boundary - that would have been the more sensible thing to do. Would they have the right to fine me if I came home so drunk that I needed to sleep in my car if I was fully within my property’s boundary. NO, THEY COULD NOT.

According to the council, I had issues with them as well, the boundary line is drawn from the entrance to the kerb. I told the council official that the kerbside could be overgrown and I would not maintain it. I physically drew the line and had him agree what was council property.

 

[Macarj]

If you read it again you will find she was on public property like nature strip which means she can be fined...funny how she has garnered sympathy from strangers who don't know the full story.

She said she was in her driveway