2nd hand Granny Flats - hard to get approvals in Logan/Western Syd?

Hi all,

I have a friend who builds modular homes/granny flats and also owns multiple caravan parks full of his modular homes. I can get used granny flats/homes fairly cheap and was thinking of dropping them into my properties in Logan and/or buying some houses on land in Western Sydney to drop some into.

Has anyone attempted this before? Do you think it would be hard to get approvals for older granny flats? (I'm thinking efficiency ratings etc may have changed?)

I've taken a look at the 'Secondary Dwellings' requirements under the State Environmental Planning Policy (Affordable Rental Housing) 2009 (for NSW) and it doesn't say much other than the dwelling needs to meet the relevant provisions of the BCA.

Can anyone point me in the right direction here? Any town planners/private certifiers that specialise in granny flats perhaps?

 

Hi there,

In Logan (QLD) it is feasible since they permit granny flats, which they call secondary dwellings, but you will need a building approval from a building certifier. The issue will be whether or not you can produce all the necessary certificates proving to the building certifier how the building complies with the necessary codes and Standards, including waterproofing, window glazing, framing etc. The original building would have all these certificates listed with the original property address, but if you are accepting them as second hand and putting somewhere else, it may be difficult to prove that it complies as it should list the address that it's going to. I don't know after all that if it's possible.

In NSW modular homes are treated differently than the link you mentioned above, as they are considered prefabricated they are different compared to building a flat pack or from scratch. Depending on the local council, you may only need to apply for a 'section 68' approval directly to the council for the modular building and not have to go through a usual certifier process. I suggest you ring a few building/planning departments at some western sydney councils to see what their procses is for this section 68 application and how easy/hard that may be. Here's a link to some info regarding thishttps://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/-/m...manufactured-home-estate-2006-10-03.pdf?la=en