Dual occupancy in BCC

Hey guys
Just after some advice about how to go about things with a property that we have bought the should go unconditional on Tuesday. It is a split level home with 5 beds and internal stairs on a LMR block. Both the upper and lower level has a kitchen bathroom and bedrooms. The laundry is downstairs and would be shared. We would like to live initially upstairs and rent out downstairs?

What is the best way to do this from a council and insurance perspective?
1. Get it classed as rooming accommodation- what about insuring this it seems potentially problematic?
2. Since it is a pre-existing house it would come under the BCC planning code 2000 rather than 2014 so we could do dual occupancy? In this case we would probably build a wall separating upstairs and downstairs which should be better for insurance purposes
3. If it meets minimum boundary setbacks which will be tight could we possibly fit in an extra car park (has 2 my understanding is would need 3) and strata title (yard access is available from both levels and could be easily partitioned)? In this case I guess we would need to get separate electricity and water metering as well as I imagine far more expensive.

So, for rooming accommodation it seems we would just need lots of smoke alarms with emergency lights and a building certifier to approve as it is self assessable (building is less than 300m2) with BCC BUT possible insurance concerns? This option is not likely to be too expensive???

What about dual occupancy how would we go about this (we can in the LMR zone correct?)- is the only option strata titling or is there something in between? With fire separation this would need to be between the floor of the upper level and the ceiling of the lower level or is it just a matter of a firewall in one location eg. Bottom of stairs… The former seems far more likely but just want to be sure.

Thanks in advance for all your help
Regards
Josh

• This topic was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by  jobeki111.