Gday.
I’ve got a friend who is renting a nice terrace. Now next door their is construction going on, and today the builder told my friend that they were going to demolish a wall (they have a mini courtyard at the front of the house surrounded by a 12ft double brick wall) the next day!!!
The builder has got permission to demolish the wall by the owner (the tennat knew nothing of tbhis until today).
After ringing the dept. NSW Fair Trade, who told the tennant it is illegal and they can get a stop work order via the tribuneral, to the council who says if it’s on their land you suffer (no matter what), where it’s on your land then if they have DA approval they can rip the wall down, even without the tennats permission.
This wall provides privacy and stops a hell of alot of noise and concrete dust. And also saying your going to lose a 12ft wall tomorrow ain’t exactlysomething wonderful. So these people want to keep the wall (there not anti development, they just want peace without being pushed around).
So does anyone have any idea of who is right or what needs to be done???
Hellma
I am not sure of the right answer,but I would imagine that if the wall is on the builder’s site,and he has council approval,then he could demolish it.This may get complicated if say the wall was a part of the nighbours front fence,but had still been built on the neighbouring land.But I would still imagine it could be demolished.As a commercial site manager myself,I would have no qualms about demolishing it,but I would have first spoken to the occupier of the property just to inform them (not to seek their opinion),and then I would ensure the continued security of the neighbouring property by erecting temporary fencing and covering it with shade cloth to try and stop some of the dust.
Tools
What’s the big deal ?? The owner has approval to do it from the authorities and it’s on his property. Job done.
It sounds as if the builder has done exactly as Tools suggested – they advised what they were going to do – not seek permission….Tools didn’t mention anything about the timeliness of the notice.
It looks like a pretty standard industry wide practice (probably learnt at great expense and stress) to verbally advise the day before…probably close to 5pm, so that little American style lawyer wannabe’s can’t start running around the place whinging to anyone that will listen – screaming “But what about my rights” !!
There’s probably 50 things about the construction going on next door that the tenant knows nothing about…once again – so what ?? You didn’t mention why the wall needed to come down ?? Was it simply for site access (temporary) or is there something more permanent going up instead ??
My suggestion to the poor hapless tenants who ‘just want peace and not to be pushed around’, that if they want those two things…go and purchase their own place !!
Why do they need your help ?? What would constitute “success” in your eyes ??
Sounds like the tenants should see a mortgage broker about financing their own little castle if they are all bent out of shape about an owner going about improving his property.
Probably not what you wanted to hear Hellman, but I believe property owners should almost always have the right to go about their business and improve their properties without constantly being tripped up by peripheral 3rd parties…tenants, councils, heritage listings, tenants, conservation councils, sacred sites, neighbours, did I mention tenants (stakeholders I think the new flash word for it is) who all want a greater say in what happens than the owner.
I say if you really want to have your ‘rights’ imposed…stump up the cash and become the owner.
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
As a tenant, I was told early one morning that the builder next door was going to demolish the wall on the boundary.
I promptly told him I needed that wall to hold the garage roof up.
After a few quick phone calls emphasising that it would be hard to find a new tenant with building going on next door and that this wall was of value to my landlord/owner as it added to the appeal of the property, some compromise was acheived.
They only wanted to knock wall down because it was ugly compared to new townhouse.
So they just rendered it on the new building side and everyone was happy.
As a tenant you can apply some leverage, it is just another case of negotiating like a lot of aspects in life.
Find out what the owner next door might compromise on and find out how prepared your landlord is to keep you.[biggrin]
Sometimes a better result is found if you deal directly with the parties involved rather than going through the slow process of legal avenues.
Live, Learn and GrowLifexperience
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