Splitting house into 3 separate dwellings

Ellmay

Ellmay

Hi,

I'm looking at purchasing a 3 story house in QLD with ocean views and a pool. It would be pretty straight forward to split it into 2 or 3 separate self contained apartments (we would sometimes live in one of them) and rent the other one or 2 out to strangers permanently. What sort of thing should we look out for here? is it as straight forward as i hope? What does council require you to do? We don't intend on Strata titling it. The real estate agent said he has a lot of these types of set up's on the management books and most of them aren't council compliant etc. But who knows who to believe really.

Any advice or potential hurdles/road blocks that we don't know about would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.
 
You're looking at firewalls between sole occupancy units as a minimum. If you are seeking Council compliance you need to meet the requirements of the BCA. A certifier will be able to look at the existing and proposed plans to tell you exactly what is required.

There may be other requirements such as waste storage, parking spaces and private open spaces to consider.
 
Also be aware that your insurance will be void if it's not approved.
If someone gets injured/killed you lose everything? Depends on your risk profile I guess.
 
Thank you for your replies :)
What happens if your neighbours dob you in to council that you have more than one family living at the residence? What can council do? They cant exactly kick everyone out can they? The real estate agent I'm dealing with told me that the council found out that he had split his house in 2 - not council approved - and renting to separate people. Apparently they just kept sending him letters saying it was illegal, they sent letters for years but nothing ever happened.
 
LOL thank you :)...Your rea is piece of work and btw i would not have mentioned your intentions of splitting the prop.

Anyhow i'm not going to go there re:legalities,i'll let thatbum or someone else advise.

Good luck Ellmay IF you follow this path :)

Ps.Just to add in hindsight,counc & gub need some karma.
 
Also, i'm looking at another property - this one is on 7 acres, and has 2 houses on it and a large shed with self contained studio in it. Ideally we'd like to live in the shed when we're home (often away), and rent the 2 houses out to different people. Agent advised that the neighbours have already dobbed the current owners in for doing this exact thing thus now only one of the houses is tenanted. What would have happened if they just ignored the council?
Another option would be to subdivide. Does anyone know how difficult/expensive this option would be?

Any help is greatly appreciated :)
Thank you
 
Ellmay said:
Also, i'm looking at another property - this one is on 7 acres, and has 2 houses on it and a large shed with self contained studio in it. Ideally we'd like to live in the shed when we're home (often away), and rent the 2 houses out to different people. Agent advised that the neighbours have already dobbed the current owners in for doing this exact thing thus now only one of the houses is tenanted. What would have happened if they just ignored the council?
Click to expand...

Council would issue a notice to comply, legally enforceable. It has the power to break whatever lease that you have put in place.


Ellmay said:
Another option would be to subdivide. Does anyone know how difficult/expensive this option would be?
Click to expand...


Subdivision is dependent upon the LEP/DCP which will control the minimum lot size, the land may be zone rural with a minimum 5 ac lot requirement. Speak to the council.
 
Most councils have a lot of information on their web sites .

That would be another place to look to get ideas on what is legally viable.

We have a unit in a small block and at the last meeting someone raised the prospect of the block down the road being raised another level

As each showed the maximum height allowable height is 8.5 meters ( which sort of makes 7 levels impractical unless you're a hobbit ) . On that council you can search for any DA application .

Cliff
 
Ellmay said:
Thank you for your replies :)
What happens if your neighbours dob you in to council that you have more than one family living at the residence? What can council do? They cant exactly kick everyone out can they? The real estate agent I'm dealing with told me that the council found out that he had split his house in 2 - not council approved - and renting to separate people. Apparently they just kept sending him letters saying it was illegal, they sent letters for years but nothing ever happened.
Click to expand...

I am confident that once you ring up the insurance company you use they will set you straight on this very quickly,because unless you tell them upfront
then when you have problems as you will the insurance will just wipe you and from what I know of the GCCC they are right on to something like this your neighbours might also make the phonecall,as far as the Gold-Coast RE saying they just keep sending him letters ,,I'm told it's about a 12 month turn around before they will act,imho..
 
Thanks for the replies :)
So how do you legally rent two or more dwellings on the same property? Whether it be a house with detached granny flat, or 2 houses on the one block, or a multi story house that you want to split up?
I suppose there would be different rules for each situation. The council doesn't seem to give me any info on the property unless I submit an application for works and you have to be the owner for that.
It's a tough one because how do you know that what your buying will be able to serve it's purpose as dual income? You don't really know until you buy it, and if it doesn't work out then you could be stuck with a house that's returning a lot less than originally thought, plus it could be an issue to re-sell.
 
Ellmay said:
Thanks for the replies :)
So how do you legally rent two or more dwellings on the same property? Whether it be a house with detached granny flat, or 2 houses on the one block, or a multi story house that you want to split up?
I suppose there would be different rules for each situation. The council doesn't seem to give me any info on the property unless I submit an application for works and you have to be the owner for that.
It's a tough one because how do you know that what your buying will be able to serve it's purpose as dual income? You don't really know until you buy it, and if it doesn't work out then you could be stuck with a house that's returning a lot less than originally thought, plus it could be an issue to re-sell.
Click to expand...

Each council generally has a density zoning for each block. That density zoning dictates how many dwellings and in what format is allowed. For example if it's zoned single residential then there is no way you can split up a 3 storey house into 3 seperate dwellings.

If you don't want to tackle learning the zonings and what they mean then engage a town planner to help you assess/find a property which is suitable to what you want.
 
The Council town planning department will be able to tell you without you owning the property.

If the present zoning doesn't allow for dual occupancy, you would usually have to lodge a development application for a "material change of use".
 
westminster said:
Each council generally has a density zoning for each block. That density zoning dictates how many dwellings and in what format is allowed. For example if it's zoned single residential then there is no way you can split up a 3 storey house into 3 seperate dwellings.

If you don't want to tackle learning the zonings and what they mean then engage a town planner to help you assess/find a property which is suitable to what you want.
Click to expand...

Westminster - Do you have any resources or can you point me in the direction of where I can learn more about zonings?

Also - I didn't know you could engage town planners? Are these private ones? Sorry I'm so new at this :/ Appreciate your help :)
 
Perp said:
The Council town planning department will be able to tell you without you owning the property.

If the present zoning doesn't allow for dual occupancy, you would usually have to lodge a development application for a "material change of use".
Click to expand...


Do you know roughly how much this application costs and how long it takes for assessment?
Thank you :)
 
Ellmay said:
Westminster - Do you have any resources or can you point me in the direction of where I can learn more about zonings?

Also - I didn't know you could engage town planners? Are these private ones? Sorry I'm so new at this :/ Appreciate your help :)
Click to expand...

Each council or state can have different ones. I know the Perth ones but I'm hopeless at other states.

If you are looking at Brisbane for example there is a lot of information on here about the new zonings and many of the posts are by RPI who is a private town planner.

There is a lot of Brisbane zoning information online
http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/plan...-city-plan-2014/city-plan-2014-mapping/zoning

If you are looking at another QLD area then it's best to be a bit more specific and someone might know a good link
 
Start reading here to learn about Gold Coast: http://pdonline.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/masterview/modules/common/default.aspx?page=search

Yes, there are private town planners who can guide you through the process.

I don't know if it's true in the Gold Coast, but in Brisbane a material change of use is difficult to get through at all, but Council and your planner can give you guidance as to the likelihood of success. If it does succeed, it would take months and (I'd guess, haven't done it for a while) cost $10-20K.
 
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