I am going to add extra bedrooom iinto my unit. I went through many subject on this website and I still havent found clear answer for question if I need council approval for any work done inside the unit? the work will require adding floor and one wall, no demolision at all. The external apperance of the unit wont be changed.
Assumined cost around 9000 AUD.– what if I do the work without any approval?
– can I be fined?
– is it any law allowing strata or council people to get into my unit without my permission?
– can I get inssurance for the work?
– do I need architect to draw the plan?
– can I sell unit without having any approvals for the extra bedroom?
– can I get the projcted fully approved after constrcution?
I would appreciate your help
DanikoOne of my friends recently added a bedroom to his units. He actually added it on the balcony (which was bloddy huge, and still is) so things may be different. He needed both council approval and stata approval and had a hard time getting it too.
But if it inside, then maybe nobody will know?
Terryw | Structuring Lawyers Pty Ltd / Loan Structuring Pty Ltd
http://www.Structuring.com.au
Email MeLawyer, Mortgage Broker and Tax Advisor (Sydney based but advising Aust wide) http://www.Structuring.com.au
Hi Terry;
Thank you for your reply.
That was different case, anytime you are changing external apperance of the property you must have councill approval, but for internal changes it should not bother anybody. I think so.Provided that you have informed the Body Corporate that you will be doing renovations and have the necessary insurances in place and that the work will be built to engineers specs there is no need for Council approval.
The difference in Terrys friends case was that they were in fact increasing the GFA (gross floor area) of the Building which I suspect was already at maximum.
HI John;
I am assuming that you have lots of experience in terms of unit development. I am still getting differenet opinion from differnet people. I acctually called council and I said that I am going to add one bedroom to my unit, they didnt ask any further questions are replied that I need councill approval. I dont think they could make the decission basing only on the info I gave to them. We all know that anyting going through council takes ages and on the end we can found out that we didnt really need council approval. Obviously nobody from council would admit that. If I am going to use lincesed builder and we do the work according to any Australian standards, I dont think anybody can complain. The only "but "is that the bedroom will be add on the second floor, using empty space between bedrooms, what would accutally incresae internal floor area. Do you think it would make any difference?
I dont know why council should involved into job I am doing inside my unit as long as donest affect neighbours .
I think they just want to make some money and bother people
John can you please add some comments into it.With properties in a Community Title, generally what you do inside is up to you provided the changes are not structural. From what you have said in your last post, it would appear that you will be filling in a void (how you propose to build the floor will be the telling point here as this will require an engineer to ascertain what effect it will have on the supporting walls) which technically will increase the GFA of the unit and as such Council may well require approval. If it were me, I would probably take the punt and do it anyway as it is highly unlikely that anyone will ever know. Many properties in Australia would fail a Council inspection if everything was taken to the letter of the law.
HI Jon;
I didnt realise that such a work can bring so many "buts". I have spoken to builders, reno people and nobody could say for 100% you can do it or you cant. I am going to use licensed builder for the construction work so it will follow all buidling rules. The only question is, what would happen if someone from body corporate finds out? Can I be fined even if the work is done according to all buidling regualations? I dont want to waste time with council, it will take up to 6 weeks and will cost extra money. Recently my friend did small reno in his office, the entire work cost him 1800 AUD ( builder and materials) and council approval took 1400 AUD from his pocket and the only thing they done was one minute inspection and 5 seconds to make a stamp on docs. I wish I could be piad so much
What can be called structural change?
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