Building a Granny Flat - Part 2 - Construction

[dedalus]

Hi all,

My first post. This has been an enormously interesting thread - very informative.

I was wondering about legal ways of stretching that 60 sq m rule.

I think with granny flats the rules say that you're allowed 60 sq m excluding car space. I'm not sure if the 60 sq m refers to internal floor space or external (the difference would be about 7%). Assuming it's internal floor space, it seems that you could build a flat with 6.4m x 10.7m external dimensions on top of a triple garage underneath. One of the car spaces could be used by the granny flat, and the other two by the main dwelling.

You could also attach a back verandah to the granny flat (say 18 sq m). As long as the verandah is not enclosed.

Crikey, it's now almost a town house.

Does anyone know how far away from the main dwelling the granny flat is allowed to be? The rules just mention "within the main dwelling's curtelage" - which I guess means close to the main dwelling. Strikes me that's pretty vague. The reason I ask is that if the granny flat can be a fair way away from the house(say 15m), you can do some spoofy landscaping around the flat and so increase its privacy and value quite considerably.

 

[Newbieatlife]

Hi all,

My first post. This has been an enormously interesting thread - very informative.

I was wondering about legal ways of stretching that 60 sq m rule.

I think with granny flats the rules say that you're allowed 60 sq m excluding car space. I'm not sure if the 60 sq m refers to internal floor space or external (the difference would be about 7%). Assuming it's internal floor space, it seems that you could build a flat with 6.4m x 10.7m external dimensions on top of a triple garage underneath. One of the car spaces could be used by the granny flat, and the other two by the main dwelling.

You could also attach a back verandah to the granny flat (say 18 sq m). As long as the verandah is not enclosed.

Crikey, it's now almost a town house.

Does anyone know how far away from the main dwelling the granny flat is allowed to be? The rules just mention "within the main dwelling's curtelage" - which I guess means close to the main dwelling. Strikes me that's pretty vague. The reason I ask is that if the granny flat can be a fair way away from the house(say 15m), you can do some spoofy landscaping around the flat and so increase its privacy and value quite considerably.

Ive seen a granny flat design where somebody created an "patio/awning" all around the structure, built walls at the edge of it and essentially made 3 extra rooms for the granny flat!

At the end of the day however, a granny flat is still a granny flat and it only really only serves 2 purposes - as a cashflow boosting device or for your granny to live in! There are many designs where you can "stretch" the SEPP guidelines but you have to ask yourself - is it really worth it?

In comparison, building a granny flat is largely more expensive than building a proper 3 bed villa, townhouse or a proper dual occ house (working on about $1000/sqm).....And these have the capacity of adding substantial value to your piece of dirt when its reval time....also much easier to sell!

IMO if you are going to go granny as an investment, keep it as cheap and simple as possible.

 

[brazen]

Hi all,

I was wondering about legal ways of stretching that 60 sq m rule..................

Does anyone know how far away from the main dwelling the granny flat is allowed to be?

Regarding distance from main dwelling to secondary dwelling (granny flat), the Building Code is quite clear- it's 1.8m. If, though, you can provide a fire-rated wall to any walls breaching this zone, you can get as close as you want.

Regarding additional floor space making the granny flat larger than 60 square metres, the answer is a resounding YES you can! As long as the additions comply with the SEPP for Complying Development (http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/maintop/view/inforce/epi+572+2008+cd+0+N), you can indeed add garages, carports, awnings, verandas, patios, decks and the like and attach them directly onto the granny flat. They can be under the same roof-line as well.

I wrote an article about this here:
http://www.grannyflatapprovals.com.au/news/larger-than-60-square-metres/

I also recently designed a 60 sq metre granny flat in Seven Hills, NSW with a 30 sq m veranda and front patio which made the granny flat 95 sq m overall and it was approved within 10 days as well. You can see it built here:
http://www.grannyflatapprovals.com.au/seven-hills/

Serge.