Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Aug 25, 2014 9:01 pm Hi Guys, Apologies for my ignorance and potentially silly questions. Today i received a 'Building Notice' from my council stating they have inspected my garage (This is an investment property i have) and found my garage wall, against the boundary fence is unstable as it has a large crack through it. I have 30 days to knock the garage down or produce Engineering reports and potentially fix the problem. Not sure who called the council, as i would have appreciated a phone call first. Problem is i had a look at the crack today and yes it is a substantial crack BUT never noticed it before. It seems to have only come to light since the property adjoining that brick wall was recently demolished and currently having two town houses built on it. I cant be sure of this of course and certainly don't want to make any rash judgments. If it was pre-existing then certainly i will cover the cost but if it wasn't than i'm not sure what i can do. After Googleing this i come across a thing called 'Protection Notice'. Could someone explain to me what this means and if this has any relevance to my situation as i cant recall ever receiving one if in fact i should have. Or is this something i should have taken out myself. Any thoughts, comments are most appreciative. Thanks Joe R Re: No 'Protection Notice' from demolition next door 2Aug 25, 2014 11:37 pm I'm not sure where you are located so it may be different but for our demolition in Victoria (City of Greater Geelong) we had to serve a Protection Work Notice. This was arranged by the demo contractor so I don't know all the specifics. We only had to serve on on the neighbour on one side as all the other neighbours' buildings were far enough away. It's a rental property and so the real estate agent signed their agreement on behalf of the owner. The notice details the protection work, ie, what will be done to protect their property from damage. Ours said "Demolition of main dwelling & garage. The proposed demolition has an estimated start date of early December - duration approx 5 days. All windows and doors to be removed by hand. Roof structures to be dismantled piece by piece. Brick wall to be pushed inwards by use of excavator. Spotter to be onsite during demolition. Demolition will proceed in safest method." It may not be a case of someone dobbing you in to council - it's most likely they have noticed it while inspecting the building works going on next door and/or while doing random spot checks to check for correct permits, etc. ~ Anne I used to be indecisive but now I'm not quite sure. Eeek - We're embarking on a knockdown rebuild! Click here for our build thread Our blog: kdrhome.wordpress.com Re: No 'Protection Notice' from demolition next door 3Aug 27, 2014 12:14 pm If your garage wall is unstable, then potentially it can fall over onto the neighbouring land, so thats why you got the notice. You have to fix it. I do not understand how a crack can make a wall unstable, sounds like its not well built to start with? would you like a new garage? A 9x6 colourbond on a slab will cost you $16k+. Otherwise get a structural engineer out ($300) and get him to give you a report. Then go form there. the council will give you way longer than 30 days to fix it, just stay in contact with them and they tend to be lenient, but not if you ignore them. Re: No 'Protection Notice' from demolition next door 4Aug 27, 2014 4:07 pm you could consider underpinning a section of the wall rather than completely demolishing the whole garage.It may work out cheaper, maybe even ask for access from the neighbours side before or after demolition to save your garage floor from being ripped up. i imagine you also have another contract with an architect? and yeah, whatever other's said about special conditions and appendices 16 15822 Hi , I'm currently going through this now within the Whitehorse council which has a similar set of restrictions. We're having to make compromises with our floor plan due… 3 30576 |