Usually in this Forum, we get readers asking about their neighbours who are performing renovations without approval.
This week we have a Flatchatter asking us if his neighbour is maybe asking for council approval when he doesn’t really need to.
“One of the owners in our building wants to renovate his apartment,” says Uberowner. “He will be removing an internal wall and renovating the kitchen and bathrooms.
“He has sent plans around to the Committee to look at along with a draft by-law and a structural engineer’s certificate that says the structural work is ok. He’s also sent other required information about trades, licenses, warranties etc. He will be changing an external window to a door.
“The Owner has told us that he has to submit all these plans to Council. This is not a DA, but is instead a council notification process of some kind (so subject to less scrutiny than a DA). He has engaged a private certifier to help him through this process.
“My question is – why is this required? Why does Council also need to look this over? I’m a bit worried that he’s been talked into this by a private certifier and it’s [may not actually be] required.
“I’m asking because surely this affects every renovation in NSW and it adds to the cost of renovations (he’s spending $5K on his private certifier plus whatever Council will charge in fees to look over his documents and keep them on file).
“Can anyone point me to where the legislation or the state government guidelines say that this is required?”
I hate to be a spoilsport, but yes we can, and it’s HERE.
Elsewhere on the Forum
- Our strata manager says if we have an election (more people nominate than there are seats) we’ll have to do it later by postal vote. Is this legitimate? That’s HERE.
- Should we allow the committee unlimited funds to pursue by-law breaches? That’s HERE.
- Does failure to provide relevant documents render a strata meeting invalid? That’s HERE.
- What can you do about a strata manager who ignores a qualified request? And what is a qualified request anyway? That’s HERE.
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