Advice needed council asking to demolish the garage

@Clay_jensen

You need to find out exactly what is happening at your house. Possibly you do not know the whole story.

Is it rented?

Do you have a PM or is a “friend” officially living there.

Councils rarely inspect just for the fun if it. Almost all are as the result of a complaint. Most probably a neighbour has complained.

According to the “show cause” notice, the council says this property IS being used as a boarding house, and almost certainly someone IS living in the garage.

Can you get a trusted relative to call by and investigate for you?

If not, I would suggest you immediately engage a thorough PM, maybe @Lil Skater can advise?

 

Inspection happened as someone reported that more people are living there. Only 3 people are staying at the property. My car is also parked there and one of my housemate have 2 cars one got accident and is parked there. So total of 5 cars are parked there so maybe due to that.

 

Friendd are living there and I do have signed the paperwork for rent. Only 3 people are living there.

There is no one living in the garage.

 

This house is very old may be built in 1975 and so is the garage. So I am. Not sure how I will get the paper work now. I got reply from conveyncor he said you orpurchsed property via auction so you chose it as it is.

 

I would be engaging a good town planner who is in the area. They will know what to do and what isnt going to work. The letter is preliminary to the council cancelling the occupancy certificate.and eviction will be imposed and you will be liable for a lot of costs. They may also order demo and impose nasty fines. You CANNOT demo without approval and may need to apply and put a plan to council which a TP may assist to negiotiate. Any illegal works when you acquire as just as illegal now and YOU are liable. Council can order unapproved works to be demoished and the property reinstated to the approvals originally given.

I suspect your garage will need to revert to being a garage and you will need to evict occupants as a start. Then you may also need to demo if they wont approve the structure. Council doesnt have to approve what is there. They can order demo and a new construction application.

Caveat emptor appies to buyers. Did you get the building inspected and check that it was all approved as part of the purchase ? You cant sue the vendor

 

Can you be certain?

Council notice indicates the garage IS occupied.

Council notice also indicates more than 3 people living there.

Since they have physically inspected the property, I would tend to believe them.

 

yes i am sure. its just junk stuff which is there a bed ,fridge etc .only 3 people are living there .yes council
have inspected the house.

 

there isnt any occupant in the garage ,only in the front house 3 person living, garage has only the stuff which is junk . thanks for reply i will look for town planner

 

There's that front house again...

 

Hi Clay,

What was the ultimate outcome of this issue with the council? were you coerced to demolish all of the unapproved structures?

 

Was the house vacant when the council did the inspection? If so, how could they tell what the intended use of the garage would be? If not, just leave the wall intact and not have a tenant in there?

 

Can't believe the Council is giving u trouble given ur stuck overseas.

Sounds like an overactive neighbour who is stuck home without enough to do.

What country are u stuck in?

There seems to be a case to ask the council to behave reasonably. Maybe you should address one part of the issue ( spa? ) as a good faith kinda step. And then ask them to delay anything else until the Federal Government opens borders.

And if they don't try to get a legal representative or state member of Parliament to get them to back off.

Also knowing which neighbour triggered the inspection would be useful to know.

I have had experience where a council suddenly gave me grief on behalf of a neighbour. I was overseas. In the end low level corruption was uncovered where neigjbour was using friends in Council to screw us over to assist his development. State member of Parliament fixed it SUPER fast.

 

There are two issues here
1. Unlawful construction without permits ; AND
2. Alleged use as a boarding house.
The first post clearly indicated that.

Whether the use is storage is irrelevant if the area used for storage was illegally constructed. And the spa, and pool fence.

 

Update of the situation
Demolition company asking to take responsibility for neighbours property damage