No more owner builder duplexes allowed in NSW

Not sure if this has been brought to anyones attention yet on SS. I heard through a friend that NSW DFT decided early this year to prohibit owner builders from carrying out dual occupancy (duplex) projects unless exceptional circumstances warranted an exemption.
I spoke to a DFT representative yesterday who confirmed this. I asked them what circumstances would waive this ruling and they said it would be up to special judgement by DFT to grant any application for exemption. Exemptions such as a parent or child living next door in the second dwelling would definitely not be permitted.
 
Yes I have heard this as well, I also wrote that in a reply to someone's thread about 2 weeks ago. Thanks for confirming. At least it will cut down on a lot of dodgey homes going up. The amount of dodgey work I have seen around the Kellyville/ponds area from owner builders is ridiculous, I am glad they are cracking down.
 
Yes I have heard this as well, I also wrote that in a reply to someone's thread about 2 weeks ago. Thanks for confirming. At least it will cut down on a lot of dodgey homes going up. The amount of dodgey work I have seen around the Kellyville/ponds area from owner builders is ridiculous, I am glad they are cracking down.

What kind of dodgy work are they doing there? I would have thought if they are owner builder, they should have licenses themselves?
 
The only licence they have is an owner builders licence which I think is just a short course.

The quality of work from owner builders is just not upto even the minimum it should be. I don't even know how it passed council inspection.
 
The only licence they have is an owner builders licence which I think is just a short course.

The quality of work from owner builders is just not upto even the minimum it should be. I don't even know how it passed council inspection.


Agree; there are quality issues wit some owner builder construction. Unfortunately it is not hard to pass private certification.
 
The quality of work from owner builders is just not upto even the minimum it should be. I don't even know how it passed council inspection.

I know there are owner builders out there who do better quality work than some licenced builders. We have been owner builders so I don't accept your sweeping statement. Plenty of experienced tradies I know who haven't got a builders licence but have built quality homes as owner builders.
 
I know there are owner builders out there who do better quality work than some licenced builders. We have been owner builders so I don't accept your sweeping statement. Plenty of experienced tradies I know who haven't got a builders licence but have built quality homes as owner builders.

Were you the owner builder in kellyville/ponds area. If you weren't then I wasn't referring to you.
 
Were you the owner builder in kellyville/ponds area. If you weren't then I wasn't referring to you.

No I wasn't but it seemed you were generalising. No offense intended. I know of builders who spread themselves too thinly over many jobs and the quality control can drop since tradies are left on their own without sufficient supervision and briefing. Mistakes can snowball as time goes by. An owner builder who has a certain level of experience (but not a builders licence) can be more available and monitor the project with more scrutiny. I'm not saying this is always the case and can appreciate that some owner builders would struggle through a project and make mistakes.
Certifying authorities and engineers are there to check off on structural and civil works. It seems to work well in my area and, as a local developer, I haven't heard of any dodgy owner built projects in our town.
 
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