Council inspection next week

How do you intend to satisfy council that you won't lease out the other part of the house?

 

How can anyone satisfy the council? Anyone could do the right thing now and not later. Right?
There are no separate meters, only one set of bins, as the unoccupied area is at ground level it can easily be checked, they can ask the neighbours or visit as they wish.
Nothing to hide from me.

 

The council doesnt exist just for you.

 

And neither do I expect them to.

 

Ah yes I did.

I'd probably remove the mailbox and just explain that below won't be leased separately - take down the corridor? Is the rent too high? What suburb? Most properties will rent for the right price, so if the council does have an issue and you cannot just close off a section you may have to try for the whole house.

 

Yes. Thanks. I hope the council can see that the house was built for a joint family.
I will of course follow any advise they give me.

 

Actually you might be able to do that. I assumed you were trying to rent to 2 parties, one up one down but if you are only renting out one part and not living in the other then it might be ok.

 

Something doesn't make sense- you've said you intend to rent only half the house until your family is ready to move in, but when they move in, they'll move into the whole house, not just the other half.

Why only rent half the house now then?

 

Thanks. I hope the council see that too. Fingers crossed.

 

I had the whole house up for rent for a pretty low price for 3 weeks but no one attended.
That is why I locked up one part and am trying to rent the other part.
It looks like a 4 bedroom rental appeals more than a 8 bedroom nowadays.

 

The issue may be that council will object to your altering the house layout without consent. Fitting a door to divide the house in two may not be allowed.

You will know more once the council has inspected.

Your initial post still doesn’t make much sense - did the neighbour complain to the council just because you put your house up for rent? You say that you only ever sought one tenant. Or is there more to the story?
Marg

 

The lease offered for the entire house was 1 year.

 

The house was and is still empty.
I had a get together for my immediate neighbors who went through the house. Two families were frowning at the two kitchens and 8 bedrooms.
In hindsight perhaps not a good idea, but I did it to build some good cred in the neighborhood esp as we are planning to move in later.
2 weeks later the council called that a neighbour complained that I was currently using the house as a boarding or dual occupancy, a noise compain and that there was parking off the street by the occupants in my house.
However the house is empty? My real estate ad indicates only level 1 is for rent.
I tried to tell the council inspector that the compain is wrong but he was aggressive and really rude in the conversation.
I hope they will see sense when they visit.
But i am so v worried.
Due to the conversation i am

 

Hi Estate_fresh,

I don't think you should be pandering to anyone - not your neighbours or council. You've done nothing wrong and you don't owe anyone anything.

There is nothing wrong with having a big/well-equipped house or a big family or parking your vehicles off street on your property, and noise complaints are a Police issue not council and sounds like a load of rubbish anyway if you don't know anything about it.

I don't think you have anything to worry about. If your house build/renovations are in breach of the development approval/zoning restrictions, council will issue you a show cause notice, until then, you have nothing to answer for. And it doesn't sound like you're a builder/developer so if there were any issues your builder and their certifier have some answering to do..

From what you've said, this sounds like literally a nothing issue, just some cockamamie story the green neighbours here-say has cooked up and they've roped a government employee with nothing better to do to look into it.

 

The neighbour made a complaint to council. The council guy will turn up next week to find an empty house with no cars parked anywhere and no noise being made. Not an issue, but one frustrated council employee whose time has been wasted.

 

Karma for being a jerk on the phone then.

 

Great advise thanks

 

Certain noise issues can involve council, but hard to think what the issue could be if no one is there! If they have made a noise complaint it needs to be in writing and you can ask for a copy of it. As @Michael Mitchell said don't let them push you around. If they say the noise complaint was just "mentioned on the phone" or some crap like that tell them in that case it doesn't exist!

- Luke