Secondary Dwelling (Granny Flat) Brisbane

[willett]

Hi Folks,

We have just completed work on building in under our house, all legal height and whatnot. Our issue is the very rubbish builder and his equally difficult certifier friend keep telling us how illegal it is to call the construction a Granny Flat and that it having its own kitchen/laundry is against 'code'.

Our use for this 60sqm space is for a single family, with my other half using the space for her own piece of mind and space for her things. The certifier has submitted the plans to Brisbane City Council as a renovation, rather than a Secondary Dwelling. My understanding is it should be an easy thing, based on it all being self-assessable as it's for a single family. There are six of us and we really need the space!

The question is, can we use the space as is, or will we need to resubmit the plans as a Secondary Dwelling/Granny Flat?

Thanks All.

 

[RPI]

Council has just won a major case on this under the old scheme, rented out separately the use is defined as a multi-unit dwelling. You are obviouosly not doing this but Council and Certifiers are very nervous.

 

[marg4000]

Why a kitchen if you are using the area as "space for things"?

This will quite understandably ring alarm bells with the council.

Marg

 

[neK]

if its for your own use, whats wrong with classifying it as a renovation? There are obviously no intentions to rent it out.

 

[Jane - Hotspace]

I'm sure someone will shed more light on your situation than I can.

However, I have had a similar scenario where I owned a 3 unit block. Two of the units were allowed to have a full kitchen, but the 3rd was not.

I got away with renting it out by not having a full kitchen - rather a bench top oven/convection oven thingy and a plug in counter-top stove. This was not in Brisbane however.

If you're concerned, could you put in a call to another certifier to see what they say? I'm sure a 5 minute phone call wouldn't cost anything...

 

[willett]

Thanks for the responses everyone.

I should be more clear, my other half will be living in the Secondary Dwelling. This is what happens when you meet mid-life, you like certain things to be separate

The issue we have is on later resale, we want to be sure the inclusion of the kitchen and laundry in the Secondary Dwelling doesn't cause the build to be no longer certified as the plans were submitted to Council without these additions, only a 'wet bar' and 'utility space'.

It is most definitely only for our use and will not be rented to anyone else. The certifier wouldn't touch it, even based this information, RPI your explanation would explain that it was a behind covering operation.

 

[marg4000]

If you do not gain approval for the actual work done then you will probably have issues when you sell with unapproved renovations.

If you don't get the correct certification for the work you do, (and a kitchen is NOT a wet bar) then any certification you get is worthless and a waste of money.
No reputable certified will go along with falsifying documentation.

The fact that you are not renting it out is irrelevant.
Marg

 

[willett]

I knew that would be the case, we have made a bad decision with this builder and his certifier. The certifier hasn't done what we asked for in the first place and now refuses to change anything. Certification isn't finalised yet and I have been informed that he could easily update it if he wanted to. He just doesn't want to. Even after we offered to pay him whatever he needed to get it done.

Frustrated doesn't even begin to describe it.

 

[Tim86]

But you are allowed a granny flat in BCC. Just not allowed to rent it out to non-family members.

This certifier sounds like an idiot.

Heck my current project has a 50m2 house on it currently, we are throwing a 220m2 house on the block as well, classing the original house as a seperate granny flat, and there are no dramas with it.

Can you change certifiers at this stage?

 

[gaiusb]

Hi willett,

Yes you can have a secondary dwelling aka granny flat in Brisbane City Council. Yes the granny flat can have a laundry and kitchen. So long as it's being used by a single household then this isn't an issue with the BCC city plan. This seems to be in line with what you're doing.

HOWEVER the big ticket is that you also must comply with the Building Code of Australia. A dwelling is a Class 1a building, however when separate dwelling units are located on top of each other then they are both deemed Class 2 buildings. A granny flat and main dwelling are deemed separate buildings so they would be class 2's if your downstairs is the granny flat. So that means you need to have a fire and sound rated ceiling, fire rated posts (whatever is holding up the upper storey) and a complying ramp to one of the 'units'. This can be a nightmare to comply with and not to mention expensive. Most people do a granny flat that is out in the backyard and not attached to the house, so building classification wouldn't become an issue. I assume this is what the certifier is getting excited about and I don't blame them.

If I were you I would just ask for the building to be approved as a single dwelling and forget about the granny flat thing. To be classified as a single dwelling you would want to have a single laundry in the whole building, but the certifier would probably allow you to have a kitchen upstairs and a 'kitchenette' downstairs. This may require you to fix up the plans to remove the laundry and rename the rooms.

As RPI said below, if you rent out a granny flat separately then this isn't deemed a secondary dwelling it's now a multi-dwelling and council can come down on you like a tonne of bricks. By definition BCC wants the occupants in the main dwelling and secondary dwelling to share 1 household group, otherwise if you rent it out separately then you're a multi-dwelling and up for a council planning approval, big $$. Or you can look at the 'rooming accommodation' definition but that's a whole other story. Another thing is that BCC allows an unlimited amount of related persons in a dwelling combined with a secondary dwelling, but as soon as the people are unrelated the combined total is 5 people. So if you have a family of 4 in your main house and try and rent out your 2 bedroom 'granny flat' to other occupants, well that's potentially 6+ unrelated persons plus you're not sharing a single household group!! Multi unit territory.

Sorry for the rant!