Thanks Sir Humphrey,
The renovations were identical, the only difference being one was on the ground floor and the unapproved one was on the second floor (top level). I am unaware if removing the wall on the top level affected the roof. The owner maintained he was an engineer (no proof ever provided) and had a copy of the plans from the Council, but as far as we know he didn’t get approval from them to remove the wall. As far as the prospective owner was concerned at the EGM he was given approval to start the renovation on settlement of the purchase of the property which was only two weeks before Christmas even though the By-law had not been lodged. The lodgement of the By-law didn’t happen and at the next AGM it was decided not to lodge it as the work had been completed.
Our Strata Manager told us at he time we couldn’t get retrospective approval for the unapproved renovation.
Thanks again Lizzie