@leif said:Simple Question and does anyone know
Can the Council out of the blue without any declared reason quote the EPA reg 2000 and demand when no changes have occurred.
Can the Council demand removal without the option to fire prof the feature
Is the actual feature a fire risk as it does not penetrate the wall?
Generally speaking, according to our friends at Integrated (ibc.net.au) councils will hit buildings with the Rolls Royce assessment of what is required to meet fire safety regulations but a smart consultant would then sit down and negotiate with them what is both acceptable and achievable.
If you come at this from the point of view that what the council really wants is to make your building safe and what they really don’t want is to be wasting time and money dragging Owners Corps through the courts to achieve that, then suddenly areas of compromise and agreement open up.
Depending on how hefty your upgrade is likely to be, you could do a lot worse than hire a consultant (preferably one who knows the council concerned) to steer this one through for you.
However, at the end of the day the council can wave a copy of the fire regs under your collective noses and demand that you comply with every bit of it that they think is required. And if you want to dig your heels in, better lawyer up and get ready for an expensive battle in the courts.
So negotiate – they don’t want to see an emergency order slapped on your building any more than you do.
I’m not sure what you mean by “with no reason” and “out of the blue” but it’s true that councils will respond to a report from someone who thinks a building isn’t fire safe and they will also do their own surveys, street by street, of buildings they think may not be compliant.
But surely the significant factor in all this is whether or not a building is safe. It’s not so long ago that apparent breaches of fire regs led to the death of a young woman in Sydney