Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Jun 05, 2012 10:01 am Hi, There is a block of land my wife and I are looking into that the real estate has told us has a single storey covenant on it. I rang the local council and asked them about it, and they said it is not council policy that the area 'has' to be be single storey and that the covenant was put there by the developers... (excuse my inexperience if I've got this wrong) I said to the council, just to clarify, there was originally a single storey covenant put on this title, however since council doesn't have a policy to say that it HAS to be a single storey, there is a possibility in having this lifted so we can build 2-storey? And she said its possible and to speak with my conveyancer.. So, has anyone had this issue before? is there a 1% chance of it being possible, or is this common? Any help would be great, thanks. Re: Advice on lifting a convenant? 2Jun 05, 2012 10:33 am it all depends on your neighbours. If one neighbour says no. Then you can not have it lifted. You would need a good argument also. Perhaps if there are already 2 storey houses in the street that would be one. But ultimately its your neighbours decision. Re: Advice on lifting a convenant? 3Jun 05, 2012 10:41 am It probably varies from state to state, but it is my understanding that in Victoria to remove a covenant from a title, you must have agreement from the owners of all the lots on the plan, and in some cases owners of lots on other plans. In big developments you could be looking at trying to convince thousands of owners. Re: Advice on lifting a convenant? 4Jun 05, 2012 11:21 am If your house is the only one in the street (or your section of the street) which will be double storey then you have almost no hope of lifting the covenant as your neighbours will surely object on the grounds that your house will affect the amenity of the street itself (ie. it will stick out like a sore thumb if it's the sole double storey home amongst a street full of single storey homes). That's not even taking into account the neighbours on the left/right and to a lesser degree rear of the block, as there will be a many more issues that they can raise. It's a bit of a catch 22 situation - you won't know how your prospective neighbours will react for certain until you apply for the building permit and the other home owners in the street have their opportunity to object, but at the same time you can't lodge your application for a building permit until you actually own the land. Is the developer still present in the area (ie. is it an estate still being developed)? If so they will have a design approval committee of some sort that you should be able to contact as a starting point. Some people apparently have nothing better to do than comment on other people's sigs. Re: Advice on lifting a convenant? 5Jun 05, 2012 2:51 pm Legally speaking a covenant means a formal agreement or promise; in this case they are registered on the Title to your land and, by buying the land, you agree to abide by them. Your council is right; they are conditions that are set down by the developer (usually as they want the estate to look a particular way) but are nothing to do with the local council. I have seen covenants for things as diverse as; materials that a house has to be made of (cladding/roof), type of fencing to be used and even that you should not be able to see the clothes line from the street (I kid you not!). Seeing as you have a conveyancer I assume you are in the process of buying a block of land. Your conveyancer can write to the developer (who presumably is the vendor) and seek that they remove or vary the covenant but they are under no obligation to do so. Typically they have included covenants for a reason and they tend to be non-negotiable (especially when they are about "big ticket" items such as single versus double storey dwellings). Of course there are people who don't abide by covenants (for example my neighbours have a brick front fence when our covenants clearly say we are to have nothing other than 6 foot high, capped, timber fences on our properties). If noone gets upset about it (like in my case) then nothing happens. If someone does make a complaint that's when it starts to get interesting; who would you complain to? (in most cases the developer is long gone by the time any issues arise) What legal right does anyone have to make you change things which are on land which you own absolutely? (according to the Torrens system of land registration) etc etc. Suffice it to say property law is a tricky area and you should definitely seek legal advice before deciding to simply build a two storey home in an estate that has covenants such as yours! Hope that helps. Versaloc is a mortarless besser block system that still needs a properly engineered footing. If you just do a 400x200 footing it will fail in time. At 17m long you need it… 1 17835 Thank you so much for the effort. We will use it to talk with builder. We also had idea of building duplex instead and seeking suggest ions. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=106744 11 13843 Hi All, I engaged a tradie to install concrete retaining wall 600-800mm high over 32 meters in Victoria. Sleepers are 200*75*2000 mm installed over 17 steel posts. I… 0 6917 |