home ones depth of knowledge- renovating in West Aust

Hi everybody.

As people on this forum know , we are planning some minor/major renos to our shack when we regain possession in Dec.

The scope of our work is as such

Top level- extend bedrooms out on to balcony. This is metal framing and plasterboard walling. So it is pretty straight forward to move them out 1.5m.

Middle level- replace 3 windows with larger one to take advantage of the views. this is both height and width
- Replace 3 panel aluminium sliding door with bi-fold door to integrate inside and outside together. Unsure as to extending width until we get in there an actually measure the damn thing. lol
- Enclose rear balcony using steel frame walling and aluminium windows. This is where the new kitchen will go.
- strip out old kitchen cos its on the view side of the house, this increases our living space.
- Rip up the floor tiles and replace with real timber. even that's close to 20k

Bottom level- Rearrange the walls to get better layout for laundry and the boys dungeon where he will live.


Now after trying to get builders in to give us quotes and discovering that the downturn in Australia's economy is a total and complete load of old hogwash we have decided to sus out the owner builder way of getting it all done.
We are looking at breaking down the reno into individual projects and them farm them out to the appropriate tradies to get it done. This means our reno will be a series of smaller individual projects that will become the sum of the whole.

OK. Thats the background for those of you in this forum who have been living in cave an didn't know what we have planned for our place.

Now the crucial part of our question.

We went to the builders registration board website to find out the info we need if we were to do it this way.
Now the board site says that any work over 20k needs a builders license, which is fine but raises a question with me.
If someone does a major kitchen refurb, and I reckon 20k for a kitchen these days would easily be the norm, do they have to get a registered builder to do their kitchen? Or for that matter a OB license just to do a kitchen???

The main condition of a OB license is that the property is not allowed to be sold for 3 yrs.

I can understand this if it is a ground up new building starting from scratch but does this apply to renos as well ???

Whilst we are not planning on moving out of the shack anytime soon, especially after waiting 4 yrs to get in the bloody thing, it disturbs me that this condition seems to apply to a 20k plus kitchen refurb done by the unwary.

How can they enforce any of these condition?

If each individual section that we are doing comes in under 20k can we get around these conditions?

Do any other OB's find it disturbing that you can't sell your building for 3 yrs for whatever reason. Health, finance, death, etc

Can anyone shed any light on this for me before I'm forced to waste a half a day of my life (unpaid lol) that I wont get back, hanging on the phone to an organization that will have me listening to recorded messages telling me how important my call is to them.


Sorry for the big waffling post but I wanted to post with a bit of clarity so people can get what I'm rabbiting on about.

Cheers Roger an Caz

Anyone ?


There's no OB's out there that can shed any light on what we discovered?


Oh well , here goes tomorrows productivity as I waste the half day on the phone.

I so wish I had a speakerphone. Lol


Cheers Roger

Sorry I dont have any answers for you... just giving you a friendly *bump*

Roger and Caz,
I'll try answer some items of your epic post:

1)In my opinion, My understanding of owner building is exactly what the name implies...You are the owner and you are building.

2)A kitchen fit-out over 20K would not be classed as a building project requiring an OB license.

3)A building project would be a habitable dwelling, or the like, where you as the owner builder are responsible for the structural and construction integrity of the project.

4)Which leads me on to the next bit, there is a 3 year non-sale period for very good reasons, its in the first 3 years that a building usually encounters all it problems, settlement, leaking, cracking etc etc.
I think its a very good clause as well...Imagine the amount of deception allowable if owner builders were allowed build a crap house in summer...knowing full well its a crap job and its going to leak like a sive in winter, but hey i'll just sell it before the rain comes.

Hope this helps,
Pat.

Hi, I can't help you .. but thought I would let you know that there is an "Owner Builder" section in Homeone that might be better suited for your questions raised.

Good Luck