Services on common property help !!

Hi all

I am doing my first development
I am building a unit at the rear of an existing unit and doing some renovations at the front
The issue i have is that the builder is suggesting to build the water services on unit 1 and then on the common property (driveway).

I have allowed 2m by 2m for letterboxes,group metering, gas metre and water metre

I have attached his proposal and also what he wants me to change on the Plan of Subdivision.

Attachment 1
Current Plan of Subdivision
2. Overall servicing plan
3. The builders idea of where the common property boundary should look like (blue line)
4. working drawing

I had a small argument with the builder regarding this and suggesting that he needs to build within the driveway. Because Unit 1 will be losing some land.

I would like to ask everyone for their opinion about my situation & who could i seek to clarify this?

thank you

 

have you spoken to the surveyor doing your strata plan? and what was the builders reason for adjusting the boundary........ has he already laid the water pipes in the wrong position ????
if he has tell him to rip them up and re-lay them in the correct position.
alternatively, you may not need to adjust the lot boundary but instead create and easement over the pipes.

@lixas4 how do you read this

 

Yeh it seems crazy to not follow what your services plan says, and your proposed sub plan accounts for the group metering. As Bmc says, builder may have already laid the services across the front of lot 1.

Using easements as a fix may or may not work. The electrical authority will be the hard one to get to agree, they generally dont allow wiring through private lots, especially if there's common property. They will probably insist on any land that has wiring to be made common property. Gas and water are easier, you already have implied (s12(2)) easements stated on the plan (see sub plan face sheet, about the middle, just above the easements section) which 'may' work for the gas and water with no formal easement or change to common property required. Ask your surveyor to check, or better yet, make the builder stick to the services plan.
The service authorities are funny beasts, there are a lot of them and they all have their own set of rules, while a surveyor can be 90% sure on what they will want, you only know for sure when you specifically request.

Personally i agree with you, losing the front section of land to common property (or easement if allowed) would not be a desirable outcome. As Bmc says above, get the builder to put it in the correct position.

 

no the builder has not started laying the pipes.
I asked him cant you build the water in the common property
His response is no.
I will need to contact him again when his back to meet on site for clarification.

 

Glad to hear services havent been laid, sounds like there's more to this story, keep us posted.