No council apprvl/Extension on PPR without DA

HI all, any advice appreciated: We bought our PPR 8 years ago.

It's quite isolated with no neighbours to complain about development.

It came with a NON APPROVED back deck, 10m x 30m. We just got title insurance and didnt worry.

4 years ago my mum gave me a $20,000 cash gift and I immediately got a builder to use half the deck to add a master and ensuite. He did it properly. Licenced. I had a newborn baby at the time and wanted a nice second bathroom/4th bedroom immediately.

My local council in sydney is difficult to deal with and I just thought, why bother, and why wait 12 mths and spend $10,000 in submissions/geo engineer/environmental. The house is not valid for complying development (in a blue gum forest!) and as such requires a lot of annying extra expensive enviornmental reports.

Anyway, we are thinking of selling and 2 RE agents have advised best to get approval now.

I really dont want to! I hate paperwork. I don't want to pay $10,000 (engineers, geotechnical, surveyor, draftsperson, environemntal report, $2k just for council submission) Has anyone else faced this situation? I hope to just sell at auction n a warm market and hope that the extra addition is not an issue....I also know a lot of sellers just sell, w/o getting DA before sale.

 

If it is a hassle for you, it will be a hassle and a major turn-off for prospective buyers.

You will scare many off completely as they will be concerned that approval will not be granted and they will have to demolish the unauthorised work. Even though your bedroom may meet code, you have no guarantee that the deck it is built on will.

And if buyers do proceed, you can be sure that they will take the risk cost off their offers or bids.

To maximise your selling price, get the approvals.
Marg

 

As a prospective purchaser, I could probably deal with an unauthorised garden shed or a deck. No chance I'd go with an extra room. If I knew about this upfront, I'd walk away from the purchase or expect a huge discount.

 

Get council to issue a building certificate that covers the existing works. You will need inspections completed to ensure all work completed was done to Aus standards. Council may also issue a fine for unapproved construction.

 

Have you considered CDC via a private certifier?

Check out this website:

Building or renovating | NSW Planning portal

You will be surprised what things fall under CDC.

 

thanks; I could try for a building cert, and pay only $275, although I still have to rope in about 4 professionals.

no CDC for my zone due to environmental sensitivity.

Thanks

 

I found when being the purchaser, if its a hot market no one cares. Every house I looked at had dodgey unapproved extensions, made 0 difference to buyer interest, couldn't use it for bargaining power as there were 10 other buyer ready to bid against me anyway