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(NSW) New by-law being proposed that ‘all lots must comply with the original Development Application conditions and approval’. In short this has come about because the antagonist has taken his concerns to Council and Council has advised him that it is not a matter Council would pursue.
Following the DA was a Construction Certificate and then a Strata Plan and then the sign off via an ‘occupation certificate’ issued by the private certifier. Along the way variations to the original DA were made at each of the above stages.
My argument is that a by-law cannot conflict with an existing law [being the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act (and Regs)]. What the by-law will do is shift the authority from Council to the Owners Corp to issue a notice of non-compliance, thus by-passing State legislation. Does anyone have any thoughts on this or have a similar by-law?
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The “complying certificate” loophole is a total rort. We had a neighbour who removed a bedroom that was adjacent to the next-door bedroom to extend his lounge – something planning regs shouldn’t allow – because “I want to have bigger parties.” the councils own regulations said that any work that would change the layout of an apartment required a DA.
The owner was a hot shot in real estate so he had no trouble getting a builder and architect to say it was a complying development. The OC approved it because they thought they didn’t have grounds to refuse, the council refused to get involved and told us we needed to take the builder and architect to court for issuing a complying development under false pretences.
End result, we sold the unit after months of parties that had live bands and DJs until the wee small hours.
Anyway, back to you …I would be careful about the wording and perhaps change it to “current development controls” or something like that. However, if the work requires a by-law, you can cite the part of the law that you quoted about by-laws not superseding superior law, without requiring a by-law to do so.
Your next email or phone call should be to a strata lawyer.
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