Renovating

[smiffy]

Hello All

Just a few questions

1. If you are renovating a house to live in, is it reasonable to ask if you can have acess to the property prior to settlement?

2. When can you apply for a plannining permit? Doesnt this process take quite a while therefore if you have a house that is not livable you are paying the mortgage as well? How can you avoid this?

Thanks
Smiffy

 

[RumpledElf]

1. Reasonable yes, but not if the old owners are still living there. What's a few weeks to wait anyway?

2. Depends what you are doing. Surprisingly, we didn't need to get planning approval for anything - we had the council inspector through the entire house too, I think they were just happy someone was finally fixing up one of their more troublesome houses.

I found the problem was getting tradies. Took 5 months for the plumber to show up (it had no cold water connected) and then we had to wait for the electrician to rewire and the kitchen to get put in, all in all it took almost 9 months to get our house from a hideous unlivable hovel noone would touch with a bargepole to the current pretty little cottage (now worth literally 5-6 times what we paid for it) we have now.

And yes, we paid two mortgages that entire time and are still paying two as my old house hasn't sold and probably won't any time soon.

 

[claytonn]

Renovating prior to settlement

1. I have tried to gain access prior to settlement to a property that I bought from owner-occupiers. Unfortunately I got a flat no both from the agent and the owner. Both said they just did not want the hassle. I have heard from other renovators and investors that they were able to gain access to do quotes, but I haven't heard of that in WA.

2. I am with RumpledEff, check with your local council on what you need permission to do and what you do not. My experience is if you are not changing the design of the house or errecting structures you are generally ok, but check first. Councils in WA will just order structures not approved by the council to be torn down. Applying for a planning permit does take time and you will need to keep checking with the council on the progress of the planning permit.

In terms of trimming mortgage costs while planning approval, make sure your reno is completely planned from start to finish and make sure you budget is realistic. Get your trades organised and make a preliminary booking. A trades hint is to get a trade that has a one stop shop i.e. plumbing, gas & electrical as one company. Makes it so much easier. I am with RumpledEff sometimes you have to pay two mortgages, however if your reno drags on then that will really hurt.

Cheers,

Clayton

 

[smiffy]

The house is vacant at the moment. Pretty unlivable with bathroom and kitchen very manky.

Basically the whole back of the house would need to be refitted with new bathroom, toilet & kitchen. Its unhabitable the way it is. How much would this cost do you think?

So I will need to check with the Council then?

 

[Perp]

smiffy, you need to ask your Council whether you need a permit; we can't give a blanket answer. It depends not only on your particular Council, but the zoning and heritage status etc of the particular property. If you need a planning permit, you usually can't submit the application until you own the property, but you may be able to negotiate for the vendor to submit one on your behalf.

A vendor would be crazy, for public liability and other reasons, to allow pre-settlement access, but some vendors will do it.

 

[Buzz]

I have always asked for access to obtain quotes and never been denied. One reno in particular it took the full 6 weeks of the settlement time in planning and 3 quotes from every trade possible ( ie lots of access) and then 10 days to do the reno. ie recarpet, new kitchen, paint throughout.

It is possible, then again I never do anything that needs council approval - I read their exempt approvals and if they say I can add 3 skylights with a max of 1m2 without their approval then that is what I do.

A lot of planning goes a long way.

Hope this helps

Jane

 

[evee1]

There are also planning permits and building permits, both issued by a council, but by different departments (at least this how it is in Monash, your council might be different). They are required for different types of work and you need to inquire in the council whether you need any of them.
Structural work is usually covered by the building permit (it's more like an engineering and safety inspection), while any work that will change the nature or character of the dwelling might require the planning permit.
For example, extensions might require both since addition to the house might reduce the required open space, might have negative impact on the "character of the neighbourhood" (council is the judge), potentially increase the number of people living in the house and hence might require more parking spaces, etc, etc.
If you just do the internal renovation and do not change the nature of the property, the building permit is enough. You might not need one at all if the builing works are under a certain value (market rates).

Again, different councils might have different requirements, so check with the source.

PS. I couldn't get access to the property prior to settlement, although it was a deceased estate and no one was living there at that time.

 

[Ana]

We get early access on most of our renos to measure and quote, however only a small fraction of those let us actually go in there and start working on the property prior to settlement.

We have always been careful to give them a little thank you card and chockies to let them know we appreciate them letting us come by to get our planning done right.

We have also previously successfully offered to pay rent to the vendor prior to settlement while we have started preperation work so that they were not too out of pocket.

You first need to check whether you need to apply for any permits. And if you do, you can submit those applications prior to settlement taking place.

Wishing you every success,

Ana Stankovic