Hi, we are planning to buy big house which has got around 6 bedrooms and 2 living areas and then converting in to either 2 or 3 units. If we have to convert home to units what sought of steps do we need to follow, like:
1. Do we need to apply to council for requesting the permission to convert home to units
2. How do we get separate electricity meters to each of the unit
3. How do we Get separate water meters to each of the units
Sorry if this question is already posted in the forumThanks,
RajHi Raj,
If you want to convert the house to units then you will have to get approval from council, which will probably mean getting a DA and then after work has finished obtaining a occupation certificate which allows people to live in the units.
You don't necessarily need seperate electricity meters, but it would not be possible to have the tenants pay for their electricity without them. To get seperate meters installed in an existing house would probably mean you will need to rewire the house.
Similar thing is for seperate water meters- if you want seperate water meters you might need to replumb the house, although you would need to do quite a bit of plumbing work anyway if you were converting a house to several units (e.g. you would need new kitchens, bathrooms etc).
One thing to note is that Sydney Water does not allow more than one water meter on a property, so unless you are creating seperate titles, then you would need to install meters that you can read yourself to allow you to split the water usage between tenants (I am asssuming you are in Sydney based on your user ID).
Cheers,
LukeThanks Luke for all the valid points. Yes property is in Sydney.
Currently Existing home has 2 kitchens and 3 showers. You can easily convert one 3 bedroom home and other one as 2 bedroom home by closing the internal door of the property. both of them will have its own showers and kitchens. If i am just doing this, do i need to get council approval? Other question is how do i split the electricity bill between this two tenant?
I can wave off water bill to tenants and claim as tax deduction, right?Cheers,
RajIf you are converting to two dwellings, you will need council approval as there are issues like fire seperation and BCA compliance that you need to meet, So you will probably need to get a DA to do this project- the easiest way to find out how to do it is to visit the town planner at the local council.
To split the electricity bill, you could just have it in your name and have the tenants agree to each pay 50% of the bill when it arrives. But there are risks with this, such as one tenant not paying the bill because they think it is too much and that the other tenants are using most of the electricity. similar problem with water usage bills, but it just depends on whetehr you want to spend the money on getting seperate metering installed.
Cheers,
LukeThanks Luke for your comments
Cheers,
RajJust to add my 2cents, you may also want to separately meter the water however this is a major job (if you don’t you won’t be able to charge water usage, even if you have water efficient measures in place).
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