Hi Guys i have a few questions.
1) Can anyone who has a granny flat on a IP shed some light on their experiences with them ?
2) If I build a granny flat with council approval and then want to rent it out separately do i need to apply for a dual occupancy on the house with council?
3) Whats the worst that can happen if i dont ?
4) How long is a piece of string – But , what are avg costs to run water / electricty to a detached granny flat ?
Im thinking about using a kit from http://www.backyardcabins.com.au if anyone has any experience with these guys, or kits in general id love to hear about it.
Hi.
My IP has a council approved granny flat. Things may vary councill to council but.
Our council does not care if you rent seperately. In fact they encourage it. You do not need a dual occ because it is not a dual occ. I confirmed this recently because im building another house on my block. If the granny flat was treated as a dual occ i would have been unable to build but there was no problem luckily.
I would advise you to get the flat seperatetly metered both for power and water. Once again council does not worry about what you do here as long as the power is done by a qualified tradesman.remember you will require an additional bin and when it comes to a mail box. Just add one next to the existing one with an a attached to the number. The postie will work it out. No need to go any further than that.
It will help greatly if you can give both the house and the flat there own privacy. If they are living in each others back pocket it will effect rent. Corner blocks are great for this. I was lucky that i found a 1000 sq corner block property that needed a light reno and already had a granny flat. Bit of a trifecta really. Hard to find now but i would settle for a un-subdividable corner block that allowed for a well positioned granny flat.
An example of how good granny flats on corner blocks is this. Of the 10 couples that looked through my house to rent. Not one was aware that their was a granny flat.They could not see that it was attached. They thought it was next doors property. For this reason i achieved full rent on both. Just something to keep in mind. Position both as best you can to allow their own space.
Cheers.
Thanks Devo,
Youve given me something to think about.Anyone else with experience with granny flats ?
My mother in law has a granny flat that she wants to rent out. The only problem is that it is too close to the fence line and thus presents a fire hazard (according to the council). It was built years ago before these restrictions came in.
She is a law abiding citizen and thus doesn’t want to rent it out because she wants to obey the law. So if you are going to build one, then make sure you take into account how far away it is from the fence so that you can legally rent it out without having the council up your ass.
Ryan McLean | On Property
http://onproperty.com.au
Email MeI've already got one unapproved granny flat and am looking at buying a relocatable cabin to put on another IP in Western Sydney.
I've investigated with council and spoken to a few agent and it looks like you can get it through under complying development, however it needs to tick alot of boxes.
If there is an existing granny flat then it needs to be BCA compliant. If it's old then it's unlikely to comply. Some things that are neccessary are:
– Minimum ceiling height of 2.4m
– Maximum floor area of 60m2
– Minimum of 900mm from neigbouring boundary and normally 3m setback from streetYou also need to get a private certifier to give it final approval. The whole approval will cost around $3k in Sydney, and that's assuming the dwelling doesn't need any alteration and you already have a site survey.
To run power you need to allow at least $1k for a separate metre, then the cost of running the cable. I haven't split the water since it's not a major cost and I don't think it's worth the cost of the separate metre.
If you try and advertise an upapproved flat on the internet the council will pick up on it and give you a notice to instruct you not to lease it. I advertised my flat privately and found a tenant within 2 weeks.
I hope this sheds some light on the world of granny flats.
Hi,
My advise is don't tell the council anything. Its like telling the banks more information then they need to know, they will use it against you.
I have 4 properties in Melbourne and they all have granny flats in the backyard. Its the only way to go for long term buy and hold. I didn't work for 6 months and didn't have to stress about my mortgage repayments
My tennants don't seem to care that they are living so close to someone else. My only request to the agent is that if a family with kids is living in one, they don't rent the second dwelling to single man as it worries some people.
One day I removed the old letter box and stuck 2 new letter boxes and within the month got a letter from council demanding 2 rates from that property. Should have stuck with the one.
you can separate electricity by putting a sub-meter in the granny, then you have no responsibility, the 2 tenants share cost according to meter reading. this costs $1,200
Water is harder to separate. the water boards needs subdivision paperwork before they will add 2nd meter.Good luck.
Hi.
I own and run a granny flat business in Sydney, Granny Flats Australia.
We take care of all aspects of granny flats from design, approvals and construction.
I would be happy to answer any questions at all.Hi
Firstly to Marshes I can't help you with the granny flat problem but i can tell you that the length of a piece of string is
always twice half its length.
To Ryan , can your mother in law build a fire proof block fence on the property line thus negating that aspect and problems from council
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