Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Mar 03, 2011 7:24 am Hi there, I wanted to ask some advise...we have recently purchased a house which was advertised as having a 4th bedroom and a genuine granny flat on the ground level. After our Building and Pest inspection it appeared that the ground level was 100 ml short of being legal, therefore not legal height and possible insurance/liability implications if people were to live/sleep in these rooms. We undertook a search for any approved inspections of the renovations as they had been done in 1986/1987, so not by the sellers..however this has just come back negative (eg no approval). So my question is, we have heard that you can possibly obtain a Building Certifier to come in and assess whether the ground level in question is "safe" to enable the building to be approved - does anyone have any advice or information about this? Any help would be so greatly appreciated as we love the house but have come across this hurdle. The surprising thing is that the sellers didn't realise that it wasn't legal, so obviously when they bought 5 years ago, their own building and pest inspection didn't come up. Thanks in advance! Re: Getting approval for old renovations after purchasing a 2Mar 03, 2011 2:24 pm Safe to be approved for what? Why would you think there are insurance implications? Are the foundations etc sufficient for a room underneath to be safe? We have an extension that is 100ml low (2300 instead of 2400) The room was listed on the permit as a 'store', as these can have a lower ceiling height. Permits were approved and passed by both council and building surveyor. How we use the room, once built, is our business. If someone were to sleep in it we we still be insured. Were the requirements in 86/87 the same as now? Was a permit required for the changes? Re: Getting approval for old renovations after purchasing a 3Mar 03, 2011 4:09 pm tjilpi Safe to be approved for what? Why would you think there are insurance implications? Are the foundations etc sufficient for a room underneath to be safe? We have an extension that is 100ml low (2300 instead of 2400) The room was listed on the permit as a 'store', as these can have a lower ceiling height. Permits were approved and passed by both council and building surveyor. How we use the room, once built, is our business. If someone were to sleep in it we we still be insured. Were the requirements in 86/87 the same as now? Was a permit required for the changes? Hi Tjilpi, We have been advised by city council and our insurance company, that any building under the 2400 height is unable to be legally used as any habitable room, such as a bedroom. Obviously people do what they want with these rooms, however if say a fire happened and someone who was sleeping in the room downstairs, we have been advised that we would not be covered by insurance, because the groundfloor is not legal height (100 mls below). This is void if the city council has approved the downstairs rooms, however this does not appear to be the case as we have not found any such approvals in our search. As for your question about 1986/87 - no one we talks to seems to know if the rules were the same or different. No one really seems to be giving us much advise around this, which is suprising as so many houses we have seen have "utility" rooms that people sleep in...we can't be the only people that have come across this... We have also spoken to many people from each place, who have given us a diverse range of information that is making very confused. it's a shame because we love the house.. We are hoping to be able to get a building certifier to certifier that the rooms are "safe" to be approved by the council despite it's height, therefore legally used as a bedroom and able to insured as a habitable room...and hoped that someone here knew something about it... How much are you ahead in payments compared to where the build is at? Have you fully drawn down the loan? 5 11893 The Soil classification has little to do with piers. The purpose of the classing of the soil is to identify the clay content and the "average expected range of movement… 2 9841 Hi, we live in an area where the black soil is prone to a lot of movement. We have an old 50's house with masonite everywhere and nails popping out, warping, rusted etc.… 0 4500 |