Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Could I be in big trouble?! 22Dec 04, 2009 7:03 am lisanne I'm still curious as to how you managed to get to 2 weeks from handover of your house before you realised you had an easement on your block and what it is!! I know we all have a steep learning curve when we get into buying land and building but an easement was one of the first things I thought people learnt! you can only learn what you get told. No-one told us there was an easement - yes, now that I look at the lot drawings it seems obvious, but the builders mentioned nothing because our house doesn't come close to being built on the easement, so they didn't care to mention it. I'm actually not too worried now - worse case scenario I get a retaining wall built 3 metres from the back fence and have the gap back filled (surely a bit of dirt won't cost too much).... Can anyone answer my question as to WHO issues the Occ cert? Does the council come round to the block and check it all out? If so, one assumes I need to get this sorted asap... Cos i want the Occ cert.. Re: Could I be in big trouble?! 23Dec 04, 2009 7:06 am jcjuice lisanne I'm still curious as to how you managed to get to 2 weeks from handover of your house before you realised you had an easement on your block and what it is!! I know we all have a steep learning curve when we get into buying land and building but an easement was one of the first things I thought people learnt! you can only learn what you get told. No-one told us there was an easement - yes, now that I look at the lot drawings it seems obvious, but the builders mentioned nothing because our house doesn't come close to being built on the easement, so they didn't care to mention it. I'm actually not too worried now - worse case scenario I get a retaining wall built 3 metres from the back fence and have the gap back filled (surely a bit of dirt won't cost too much).... Can anyone answer my question as to WHO issues the Occ cert? Does the council come round to the block and check it all out? If so, one assumes I need to get this sorted asap... Cos i want the Occ cert.. You can't rely on going through life and only learning what people tell you, otherwise you will be a mushroom. Anyway, my builder used a private company to do the COO and they make sure it complies with what's required before issuing the certificate 'A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.' Louis Pasteur Vegie garden: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27637&start=0 My Backyard Adventure Re: Could I be in big trouble?! 24Dec 04, 2009 7:13 am lisanne You can't rely on going through life and only learning what people tell you, otherwise you will be a mushroom. err I don't - but when it comes to building (which I am not an expert unlike yourself obviously) you hope that you will be kept well informed. My builder knew we were planning on the excavation and didn't flag anything.. anyway, that's a side issue. Now I have to get it rectified. Thanks for the tip on the occ cert. Re: Could I be in big trouble?! 26Dec 04, 2009 9:31 am As easy as it is to blame the builder, it's unfair to blame the builder as it's not the builder's responsibility to stop you. The builder more than likely assumed you had approval to do so, as their plans did not include council approval or any works there, so why would they need to? However, as part of settlement of the land, your settlement agent should look for easements as part of the process, and should have informed you. Maybe call them and ask for the information they have from settlement - they should have some details there. After doing that, start getting approval as if you haven't done it yet - they aren't going to come and look. Call 1100 to work out exactly what is there if the settlement agent results are not informative enough (and ask them to email you so you can pass it onto the council), and get plans into the council and whichever utility owns the lines. And don't install a retaining wall until you get approval as you might not get it and could have to rip that up as well shift the dirt back. They will more than likely say yes, depending on the depth and requirement of access. Maybe start planning for a different place to put retaining as plan B. On a side note to everyone reading, please remember you should ALWAYS call 1100 before digging, People got killed in the US when they didn't. Re: Could I be in big trouble?! 27Dec 04, 2009 9:38 am We purposely didn't buy certain blocks of land because they had easements They make it restrictive with what you can/cant do. I want to buy a block of land, and know that I can do pretty much whatever with every square metre of it, and know that only we'll be touching it, not someone else later down the track. Hope you get your issuse sorted asap Re: Could I be in big trouble?! 28Dec 04, 2009 10:06 am Ari :lol: you are trying to blame the builder for not stopping you? no - but thanks for your useful post. It's my fault if anyone's - i get that. I just assumed (obviously wrongly) that my builder may actually care what I do to the property whilst it's under their jurisdiction. If I wrecked some pipes, technically the builder would be liable, because I signed over the rights of the property to them - at least, that's how I view it. thanks for the info mrs smith. I will try to get this sorted, it's kind of hard though - I'm out in the middle of nowhere (Moomba - santos mining site) with no mobile reception. So i can only contact people via email.. - but hey, that's my issue!! Keep the suggestions coming if there are any!! Seriously though - can anyone track down an application from Yarra Valley Water to build over an easement? I found one for City West Water - but it's Yarra Valley Water who owns the infrastructure out in the Highlands estate i think..... Re: Could I be in big trouble?! 31Dec 04, 2009 10:51 am jcjuice I just assumed (obviously wrongly) that my builder may actually care what I do to the property whilst it's under their jurisdiction. If I wrecked some pipes, technically the builder would be liable, because I signed over the rights of the property to them - at least, that's how I view it. ^^^ And that in nutshell is why many builders won't let owners on site. People want to be able to do what they want, then have the builder be liable if anything goes wrong. Is it any wonder builders take the hardline? Sorry, side issue.... but that attitude really p1sses me off and is the exact reason why owners aren't allowed on site. Back to your primary problem..... from the sound of it, it is an honest mistake/lapse of judgement on your part. Rather than looking for ways around the issue, why not simply confront it? Ring your council and Yarra Valley water, explain what has happened, explain that it was an honest mistake and you realise that and are looking to rectify things and move forward in the correct manner. You may not have damaged any pipes, but you may have affected the stability. If it was me, I'd rather the piece of mind of having everything checked out. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Could I be in big trouble?! 32Dec 04, 2009 11:33 am Ari Have you only taken out the soil added there from the site scrape, thereby returning it to its original level ? Or did you take out more than that? we made the block flat - they had the front flat, and the dirt was pushed to the back, but there was a bit of fall on our land, so we probably took a bit more out than just what they pushed back from the site cut. the builder really did the cut too deep in my opinion though. Re: Could I be in big trouble?! 33Dec 04, 2009 11:36 am borg Just a quick question. How high is this retaining wall going to be. probably could get away with a 1m wall - maybe 1.2 at the highest end, but I could always shift dirt across so that it was 1m the whole way across.... Re: Could I be in big trouble?! 34Dec 04, 2009 1:02 pm Quote: Seriously though - can anyone track down an application from Yarra Valley Water to build over an easement? I found one for City West Water - but it's Yarra Valley Water who owns the infrastructure out in the Highlands estate i think..... Have a look here at the application form for easy access and easydevelop. Section 7 has an option you can select "build over easement" This might be what you are looking for? http://www.yvw.com.au/yvw/ServicesAndProducts/LandDevelopment/LandDevelopmentForms/ Re: Could I be in big trouble?! 35Dec 04, 2009 2:16 pm My council in Ryde NSW does not allow you to build any permanante structure over easements except patios. No retaining walls, carports, eaves, etc, etc. Greg Re: Could I be in big trouble?! 36Dec 04, 2009 9:17 pm Our first house was on the low side of the road and sloping downward. It had a 3m easment running along the back for both sewer and stormwater. Luckily (i suppose) the easment wasn't up against the boundary, there was an extra 2 metres before you got to the boundary. In order to get a flat landscape we needed to build a 1.8m retainer all the way along that 2 metre 'no easement' section and then 2 return walls at either end right over the easement. We applied for council approve to build the two side return walls and also to increase the fill over the easement. They approved it. We just had to make sure the RSJ beams where placed on either side of the easement. Since we had added 1.4m of fill over the easement we needed to raise the sewer manhole ($900) - which was done by SA water. Re: Could I be in big trouble?! 37Dec 05, 2009 9:28 am Hi, in response to your question on who issues the occupancy certificate, if you are with a volume builder then they usually use private companies (this relates to Melbourne - you stated you are in Craigieburn). Is there somebody you know who can drive by your site and have a look for a board that the builder usually puts up at the front with their contact details on? These boards often have the company name of who the permit is through. If you can't get somebody to do a drive by, then email the builder and ask who the the permit is through. The OC should only relate to the build of the house so the work you have done at the rear shouldn't affect this being issued. Good luck!! Re: Could I be in big trouble?! 38Dec 28, 2009 10:40 am Hi jcjuice, Just wanted to say that I stumbled across your thread today, and I cant believe how rude people can be! I have been reading these forums for months now, and never seen anything like this! Firstly, I believe that these forums should remain friendly and be used for the purposes of gaining understanding about issues pertaining to building a home. I DONT think that anyone should take the p**s out of anyone else for not knowing about a paticular issue. Secondly, when a person is 'new' to the wide world of building, then there will be terminology that that person may never have come across before (such as 'easement') ... one would assume that the purchaser would be informed about such things by the 'experts' (property, building, legal experts).... one would NOT be correct to assume that the purchaser would 'just know' about these things... that IS in fact WHY we employ the services of 'experts' on the premace that THEY will know, and inform us about any areas of concern. If people feel the need to reply to a post, please give useful advice and support rather than bagging people out. ...jcjuice, I hope it all works out for you... take what you need from these forums, and disregard the rest Built the 'Urbis' by J G King We are in, now the work begins!!! Re: Could I be in big trouble?! 39Jan 03, 2010 9:24 pm wemyss_castle ...jcjuice, I hope it all works out for you... take what you need from these forums, and disregard the rest thanks a lot for your kind post... We sorted out the issue, not ideally, but it will have to do. The retaining wall was moved 2 metres back so no longer built on the easement and we had to backfill with some dirt from other construction sites to fill up the gap. We lost a bit more of the backyard than we wanted to, but we were unable to get approval for a build over easement permit... so them's the brakes. We still have a decentish backyard, and i can rest easy knowing i didnt break any laws.. Re: Could I be in big trouble?! 40Jan 03, 2010 10:19 pm jcjuice I'm out in the middle of nowhere (Moomba - santos mining site) with no mobile reception. I know someone who works out there! Don't know if he's at Santos but he's at Moomba! Anyway, small world hey I'm glad you got the problems with your retaining wall worked out. Pity you had to lose some of your backyard, but as you say at least you know it is all above board and legal, and isn't going to collapse on you! Im sure you'll think of something to do with the left over space! |