Adding a room and approval

Hi all,

We recently offered to buy a 2x1 in WA. Finance approval is going to be tough so there is a long way to go.

Even though it is a 2x1, it actually has 3 rooms and it seems that the 3rd room had been converted into a living area. So by closing a wall and opening a door, the house can be converted into a 3x1. A good sized window is there. And the 2nd room has 2 doors, one (which could have been an addition to the original house) opening into patio area. That door has to be closed as well to make it a proper room.

To do these three changes (2 walls and a door), do we need council approval? The issue is, I don't think the previous owners got for permission for the changes they have done and probably we are going to restore the house to the original condition. But the house was advertised as a 2x1 and we have to make it into a 3x1 officially for higher valuation. So I reckon we better get the approval.

But there are some other issues as well. There are couple of patios (probably there for decades now), for which there may not be any approval. And there is a pool without a fence and pumps not working. Our plan is to demolish it later. So when we apply for room addition, will the council people visit the site? And if they visit, will they force us to remove the patio and / or fence the pool?

Would like to hear what can be done.
 
I inspected the house again and it is clear that the extra living area was indeed the 3rd bedroom and the doorway has been closed off with plasterboard. Ripping it off and placing a door is easy.

But how to make the house officially a 3x1? So that the future valuations will be based on a 3 bedroom house.
 
Hi,
Interested in this also, but we're in SA. We've added a 4th bedroom/study under the main roof and are interested in how a property officially changes from a 3 bedroom to 4 etc.
 
Do you get a council search done as part of your conveyancing? In Qld, this would alert the council building department and they would be on to it already.
 
Do you get a council search done as part of your conveyancing? In Qld, this would alert the council building department and they would be on to it already.

That should be fine. I got the patios checked and there shouldn't be any issues getting them approved if they are not approved yet. The council part is not an issue now.

But how to get the records updated in the databases so that the valuation part will be favourable?
 
This was something I was interested in and posted a week or so back...but no response.

Same, council have given the all clear, but I wanted it registered properly with the correct number of bedrooms.
 
I gave a call to REIWA and the fellow who talked had no answers as well! But I got the building plan searched through the REA and it turns out that the house was a 3x1. So once we restore it to original condition, we can get the bank to value it to access any additional equity.

But I am still wondering what all the investors who add rooms do. And it is surprising that we couldn't get an answer here at SS.
 
I gave a call to REIWA and the fellow who talked had no answers as well! But I got the building plan searched through the REA and it turns out that the house was a 3x1.

Looks like the REA didn't do his homework and as a result you picked up a 3 x 1 at 2 x 1 price.

Nice :D
 
Looks like the REA didn't do his homework and as a result you picked up a 3 x 1 at 2 x 1 price.
Nice :D

Can't blame the REA. It is sold 'as is' and the owners were not ready to do anything to market the property. It is one of those opportunities which come once in a while I reckon. We were lucky that non of the investor fellows who inspected the property noticed the concealed door in the wall :)
 
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An update.

We added the third room as planned. And got a valuation done and was able to access equity. I have no idea whether the databases got updated.
 
Sounds like you are over complicating things. You can call a home whatever you like. We've got one 4 bedder that was a 3 bedder when we bought. Re-installed a wall that had previously been removed & hey presto, it's now a 4 bedder.
 
Sounds like you are over complicating things. You can call a home whatever you like. We've got one 4 bedder that was a 3 bedder when we bought. Re-installed a wall that had previously been removed & hey presto, it's now a 4 bedder.

I'm with skater on this one. When we closed in a section downstairs to created a fourth bedroom, we didn't notify anybody. The only place I know is changed is onthehouse, because I "claimed" the house as mine and adjusted the number of bedrooms and bathrooms.

I'm not sure why it is important to notify anyone. As long as our room is legal height and can be called a bedroom, if we ever sell the house we will list it on the listing sites as four bedroom, two bathroom plus an extra toilet. That will tell anyone interested in our house what to expect once they come in the door.

I'm curious to know whether updating the number of bedrooms and bathrooms on (what?) different sites is something that needs doing?

I can only think of RPData, but that seems to be a bit hit and miss anyway with one house we own showing an incorrect purchase price ($190K instead of $156K) and the same house showing the wrong photo as well.
 
I also don't care how many rooms are there as long as we get rent enough to cover the costs :) But we wanted to access equity quickly. Room numbers being updated means a better desktop valuation and easy access to equity. But desktops were low probably because the number of rooms as per RPdata. End of the day, had to order a full valuation. Thanks to the extra room, we got the deposit back as LOC within 3 months. All we spent on it are buying costs and a small Reno cost.
 
Ah! Valuations. I understand the reason now. I would be asking for a full valuation (as it seems you have done already) and explain to the broker or bank why. That way, they don't do the lazy thing and just assume nothing has changed inside.
 
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