No plans exist for house in council archives

[Boshy888]

We have had the pest and building inspections done on a house we want to buy. We decided to do an archive search at the local council to find out the development history.

The archive search resulted in no plans regarding the buildings on the property.

Does anyone know what the short and long term ramifications for this are? Like what is the worse case scenario and what is the usual scenario?

Thanks

 

[Collector]

How old is the house?

Council records would not go past 30-40 years, if it was built before then then it may be of concern.

Check the contract to see when Deposited Plan was set up - this with give you a esimate of age.


Also ask the council why there is no records - they may get this all the time and have an explination

 

[moyjos]

This happened to my ex in laws. Bought a house...all went through ok (conveyenced with their solicitor) THEN Father in law wanted to add a small extension to the house to house a new laundry (previously in the garage)
Did all the right things and lodged application and got told "house - what house???"
Pine Rivers Council sent an inspector out and passed it all ok.

Father in law then sued the A#$e off the solicitor who supposedly "did all relevant checks" He got all his conveyening fees refunded as well as the cost of the council inspector.)

In the end all good.

 

[Boshy888]

It is over 40 years old. Will check with council and conveyancer today.

 

[Propertunity]

Not uncommon either. Quite a few years ago now a lot of councils moved to micro-fische all their old paperwork. Trouble is that when you produce a photocopy from the micro-fische not all the comments or dates are legible on plans.

 

[Buddybee]

Our local council's archive storage had a fire about 15 years ago. All records from the mid 1960's and prior were destroyed.

They now tell you when you apply for historical documents that they can't guarentee they will find copies and that they won't refund the search fee if they don't find anything. To make it more difficult, in Victoria we then had a series of council mergers going back 10-15 years so certain councils merged records do exist, and some don't. To compound matters time makes it difficult for staff to even think about what will/may exist and what definately won't exist before you start your search.

Cheers
Buddybee.

 

[tdh78au]

no house plans/record with the council?
quick ... stick another floor on top, add a garage, build a unit at back, etc and then claim it's always been like this.

You could even have a bit of fun with council when they send you rates notice ;-)

<still in a happy-go-chappy mood from rate cut yesterday>

 

[cava]

We have had the pest and building inspections done on a house we want to buy. We decided to do an archive search at the local council to find out the development history.

The archive search resulted in no plans regarding the buildings on the property.

Does anyone know what the short and long term ramifications for this are? Like what is the worse case scenario and what is the usual scenario?

Thanks

Perfect! When we bought our current house, a search had revealed that the plans had been lost through a council merger. Now we can, and have been doing, what we want with our house and land.

Contrary to what the local council advises, you do of course realise that under common law, you can do what ever you want on your own land, provided it is safe and does not impact on your neighbours, without requesting permission from any authority.

The unfortunate part, is that many purchasers and solicitors are convinced that the local council has be involved in the conveyancing/building process and get scared if there is no certificate of occupancy issued for the property.

Remember councils have a vested interest in keeping the status quo in this regard. The down side is, right or wrong, that councils have more financial accumen to fight you if they choose.

The moral of the story is, if you want the house, buy it, get on with your neighbours and do what you want to do to your property quietly.

 

[Alabex]

no house plans/record with the council?
quick ... stick another floor on top, add a garage, build a unit at back, etc and then claim it's always been like this.

You could even have a bit of fun with council when they send you rates notice ;-)

<still in a happy-go-chappy mood from rate cut yesterday>

good idea...

 

[BoatBoy]

no house plans/record with the council?
quick ... stick another floor on top, add a garage, build a unit at back, etc and then claim it's always been like this.

You could even have a bit of fun with council when they send you rates notice ;-)

<still in a happy-go-chappy mood from rate cut yesterday>

Got me thinking as well

Dave