Subdivision query

[WebBoard]

From: Anna Novakovic


Am currently looking at purchasing my first IP. What I have found is a house on a block which has had 5 townhouses built on it at the back. All buildings have been strata titled and hence all are subject to body corporate.
The house has a large parcel of land on its title, both front and back yard, and also enough land on one side of the house to put in a separate driveway. On the other side of the block is the common land driveway, which if I could subdivide, would give up to the 5 townhouses.
Is is possible to subdivide this land and make the house separate? Has anyone done this before? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Kind Regards
Anna N annabron@bigpond.com

 

[see_change]

Reply: 1
From: See Change


Have done one small subdivision and the biggest problem was getting the advice on what you can and can't do. The first thing is to go to local council and to get all of the info you can in relation to zoning / land sizes etc. With some councils you can down load this over internet. Don't rely on what they tell you over counter or on their "info line". We were told incomplete info and if we hadn't, later on, made further enquiries we would not have gone ahead and done our subdivision.

They can bend the rules in certain situations ( one of our blocks was about 1 meter to narrow at one point) and the nicer you are to the people in council the better result you get.

We had an initial meeting with three council officers to get their opinion about how we should do it ( I've found asking their advice is a very helpful technique ) We went in fairly aprehensivly about the meeting but after about 2 mins both myself and my wife realized that the council officers were more nervous of us than we were of them. We started some small talk at this stage and by the end of the meeting were almost best friends ( one was a swan supporter so he had to be half decent anyway). As a result we had no problems from the council during the entire process and this was Ku-ring-gai who are notorious in sydney.

The other place to get advice would be from a surveyor who predominantly works in that area. Some will give you a free initial assessment , some charge to say hello.

For us the biggest problem with doing it was not knowing all of the things we had to do. This was part our fault for not asking the right questions ( but we didn't know what they were ) and part the surveyors for not explaining what had to be done.

For us it was a well worth experience both financial and from the learning point of view and I would have no hesitation doing it again if the right op comes along .

happy investing see change

 

[WebBoard]

Subdivision query/renovators

Reply: 1.1
From: The Wife


Speaking of good people, a guy I use in Brisbane to give me appraisals of required renovations etc etc etc, is Steve Burgh,

spidersden@telstra.easymail.com.au

And he handled a lot of the council work for me as well, almost an onsite manager, and he is a reg. builder, he has done some great stuff for me, if anybody has a need to use him, email him your questions, and he can help you.

TW
~Life is a daring adventure, or nothing at all~

 

[WebBoard]

Subdivision query/renovators

Reply: 1.1.1
From: The Wife


And now that I have said the above, I guess I had better say Steve does mostly southside Brisbane, he will go elsewhere but southside is his preferred side.

If you want Northside, try Mark Rushton 07 32856929 he is very good with small renovations and value adding techniques, such as decks and french doors etc etc....

Be gentle with my guys everyone )

TW
~Life is a daring adventure, or nothing at all~

 

[Michael Yardney]

Reply: 2
From: Michael Yardney


I assume that the house was originally on a large block of land and the units were built in the back yard and then the whole block was subdivided.
If this is the case it will be difficult to do anything about it as one would assume the extra space around the house is required as "open space". Also you can not create a separate title out of a subdivided title or strata title if their is any common land.
The person to ask is a land surveyor, because he is the one that draws up the title. Look on the certificate of title and it should give you the name of the surveyor.
Michael Yardney
Metropole Properties

 

[cathyb]

Reply: 1.2
From: Cathy Baxter


Hi

Absolutely support having pre DA meetings with council - we did this with our surveyor - who knew all the right questions to ask. We were apprehensive at first but the meeting really smoothed the way for a successful relationship. They were also really patient when we had delays moving a house off their land - had 3 months to do it and it took 6 months to get the last bit off.
Had people all over town wanting to buy it.
Council even did the fencing for us which was a requirement of the approval.

See Change is right the nicer you are to them the nicer they are to you. That's been our experience.

Cathy