No council approval - bathroom

[penny]

Hi Everyone,

I'm in the process of buying a house in Brisbane that has had a 2nd shower and toilet added in the past 10yrs or so. The contract is subject to building and pest inspections (as well as finance).

I had the building inspection done last week and the builder told me he suspected the 2nd bathroom hasn't been council approved.

I've requested to sight the council approval through my solicitor. My solicitor said the vendor is not obligated to show me and that I may have to do a search (around $150) and that if it turns out that it hasn't been council approved I would then be obligated to sort it out. I'm worried I'd have to remove it or outlay money to get it approved if I go to council and it's not approved (maybe I shouldn't bring it to their attention?)

If I do the council search and it's not approved, am i then forced to pay to get it all approved? Is it better not to do this if there's a strong suspicion it hasn't been approved?

It was advertised as a 2 bathroom house in the marketing of the house.

I have until Tuesday before the building and pest clause term ends.

thanks
Penny

 

[wylie]

If it hasn't been approved, then it hasn't been inspected and passed and goodness knows what sort of dodgy stuff could be going on behind the walls.

I don't see why if you do a search and there is no approval, you would be liable to fix it? You could pull out of the contract on the building inspection clause, couldn't you, as long as you beat the deadline?

I would do the search and then make your decision from there.

 

[ethereal]

If it isn't leaking or causing problems and the house suits you I would go ahead with the puchase and forget about the approval/lack of it. It wouldn't bother me in the slightest. No tenant would care either.

You may be able to use it to your advantage, say take 5k off the price to compensate for any potential 'future issues' that 'may' arise due to the lack of approval.

Louise

 

[wylie]

Whilst I agree with Louise to a point, a house in my street was electrically wired by the home handyman owner. When the next people bought it, they had it checked and it was a fire waiting to happen.

Whilst a plumbing accident is less likely to kill somebody, my concern would be that should you find the plumbing backs up and ruins something, would you insurance company pay up if the bathroom was a "home handyman" job?

I also know that when my mother was selling houses, many people will run a mile from something like this, and you don't want to possibly lose a buyer down the track when you may be trying to sell this house and the purchase of your "dream home" is depending on getting a smooth sale.

We bought a house once where the original purchaser had pulled out of the contract because the house had no ant caps. They successfully used that as the "get out". We contracted to buy it, and we were sweating on the sale of the house we were selling going unconditional in order to get this house that we really wanted. Meantime, our PPOR purchasers were faffing around telling us that the building report brought up a few issues, and they really had us over a barrel.

We elected to drop $2K off the price in order to satisfy them and so we wouldn't lose the house we were trying to buy.

If this was me, I would find out if the bathroom is in fact approved. If not, I would get an idea of whether council would approve it retrospectively and factor in the costs of having the plans drawn up that you would need to do so, and the costs involved of the permits etc. For the right price, you could get it approved "after the fact" or at worst, if it is a "lemon", get it done properly. Either way, it is going to cost you to get it done right.


It is not a position you want to be in down the track.....

 

[travelbug]

If the builder suspected that it wasn't approved he must have seen something that was wrong (therefore not approved). Ask him what it was.

We went to buy a house once and the house was very close to the fence on one corner. We wanted to extend so wanted to check it out. It turned out the whole house had never been approved. We walked away. They got approval but we had bought elsewhere. The agent abused me saying they had paid for the approval etc??? Weird.
If you want to go ahead with it, use it as a bargaining tool to lower the price. But remember you will have this same problem when you decide to sell.

 

[Monty Burns]

No council approval

One of my friends told me a similar story as told to him by a workmate.

This guy brought a split level house and while in the garage discovered a 6x7m room with power, water and air vents hidden behind a book case.

The guy wanted to know what he should do. Everyone said to a) see the cops, b) see the council & c) see the insurance company.

When he asked about why he should be seeing the cops everyone came back with it is a drug room.

the interesting thing was that there was no site works around to take into account all that removed dirt.

My view it would make a good fish room

 

[Pushka]

We dont need council approval for bathroom renovations in South Australia!

 

[pennyk]

we thought we didn't need council approval for bathroom renos (in NSW)... until the council came calling. One of our neighbours had dobbed us in.
We had asked all 3 of the builders who quoted whether we needed approval, since no change to the outside structure, and all 3 said no.
In the end, the council guy took a quick look and said it was fine.
So, I would just get the council to take a look and they can probably approve it fairly easily, assuming that the size of the building etc hasn't been affected.
Pen

 

[Pushka]

Wow Penny, you must have crummy neighbours! Definately dont need approval in SA; I have done two in the last two years, by Registered builders and one included a complete removal of concrete base and relaying of pipes.

 

[Novar]

My understanding is .. in Qld unless you stipulate a council approval search, it is your problem. Not 100% sure but think so from previous experience somewhere.

I usually put that clause in this days.

That said, unless there are obvious big problems I wouldn't worry... seems the building inspector picked up something, I'd be asking what he thinks and why.

 

[craigb]

unless the sewer is connected to the storm system and your poo'ps are running down to the local creek! YUK'S

 

[penny]

Thanks for all the replies! The builder thought it hadn't been approved as there was a cover missing on something so that indicated to him that it hadn't been through the final council inspection. So, I got a plumber around to inspect it and he said it was all sound and done to the law but said it definitely hadn't been approved as there were 2 small superficial things that hadn't been done and so it wouldn't have passed council inspections. I tried to negotiate $5k off the price but the sellers weren't interested in negotiating and after a lot of going back and forth they finally agreed to get it approved at their cost instead.

So in the end they got the things done that they needed to and they managed to push it through council in 3 days and got the approval. I am now happy as it was a great outcome and I have peace of mind )

Penny

 

[boods99]

Maybe something to consider in the future...In WA when you aren't sure if something has been approved or not, and not wanting to alert the council to the fact, you can call them up and simply ask for a list of approvals that have been applied for/approved for that property. They will give you a list and all you have to do is see if your particular item is in that list. They just gave it to me verbally over the phone. I have done it quite a few times, and it did'nt cost a single cent. Even if you get charged $150 for this IMO it's money well spent.

Boods