Deal to buy unused space approved then blocked

Regarding this post (https://www.flatchat.com.au/topic/purchasing-unmarketable-land-from-bc/), I also lived in a block of 8 on the ground floor in Manly in Sydney with a worthless scrap of land behind my 1 bedroom apartment. Well….it wasn’t really worthless to anyone except me as no one else could access the three rooms located behind my built in wardrobes. You see, the builder in 1959 when the building was built and land wasn’t at a premium as it is now in that area, hadn’t built into those brick rooms for unknown reasons. All of the units above were 2 bedroom and the brick walls and room divides carried down through the 4 levels of the apartment building.

So I had this brilliant idea where I would purchase the void cavity from the body corporate and extend my apartment into a 2 bedroom apartment also. A meeting was held and it was agreed that if Council passed the plan, the work could progress with the formula as follows; a valuation of a completed 2 bedroom apartment, minus the cost of the building work, with the residue of value to be split with 50% going to the body corporate for repairs etc. while I received a 50% discount on the money I paid to the BC for using my initiative.

Council did approve the work and it wasn’t until the crusty old solicitor on the top floor became jealous that someone was getting something he wasn’t getting. So he lobbied all other owners to withdraw their approval and I was left with architect (see attached plan), valuation and legal fees as well as the Council DA & BA fees.

Good luck with getting the go ahead as all you need is one person to dissent. I suppose you could start with 3 independent valuations and see where you get with that!!!!!