Council amalgamation, Bris - VENT

Jet79 · Mar 24, 2008 5:29 pm

Ok, bear with me I need to vent.

Due to our builder taking their sweet time getting our plans into council we found our application got stuck in the middle of two councils when they amalgamated last week.

We were told two weeks ago we were just waiting for them to issue a certificate. I rang to find out what was happening with my application only to be told it has gone to the new council and I have to call them. I rang them and they said it would take a while to get back to me as they had to go through all the paperwork and find our file. The next day they found it and said it will take 2 to 3 weeks to put it into the computer and THEN they will let me know what's happening!!

You can not tell me in this day and age of computers they can't transfer all the data from one council computer to another one. Arghhhhhhh Councils are so frustrating and so are builders. I was supposed to have a slab by the end of Jan and now I will be lucky if I'll have it by May!!

I'm just frustrated as I was expecting my house to be ready by July and now with baby number 3 due in August I will be moving with a newborn!! I am just going to waddle my way up to the site everyday and stand in front of the builders am make them feel sorry for me and hope that will make them work faster. Bring on the guilt :twisted:

Thanks for the vent,
Jet

Paula · Mar 24, 2008 6:20 pm

Quote:

I am just going to waddle my way up to the site everyday and stand in front of the builders am make them feel sorry for me and hope that will make them work faster. Bring on the guilt

tell then your having twins!!

make them feel worse

HomeReview · Mar 24, 2008 7:28 pm

Jet79

Beaudesert Shire Council use a completely different data management system to Logan City Council. Neither are cross compatible. The data has to be manually converted and profiled into the data management system that Logan City Council use. Moving secure managed data between systems is not as simple as copying and pasting files in Windows Explorer.

The same applies for all amalgamated Councils. They are different data management systems and migration of secure managed data is not a simple process.

Jet79 · Mar 24, 2008 11:18 pm

Ok, so it might not be simple to move the files to a different system but I know that there are some staff in this department that moved to Logan. Why can't they use the same system they have been using in Beaudesert while Logan puts the data into their system?

Beaudesert said there would be minimal to no delay in processing our application and now I'm being told that the rules between Logan and Beaudesert are different and they have to go through everything again. They had months to plan this amalgamation and it just seems to be so disorganised in this department. I have to admit that when I spoke to Logan about the faulty tap that was installed they had someone call me back within a day or two.

HomeReview · Mar 25, 2008 12:08 am

I can't go into too much detail, what I've said is probably more than enough.

blackmax · Mar 25, 2008 2:36 pm

Hi Jet,

It looks like you situation sucks having to deal with both councils & the builders.

But unfortunately I don't think there's much that you can do to speed things along with council. Sure you can kick & scream & put up a stink, and in the future they may change the way applications are handled, but I doubt it will bring forward your application in any way.

Things will never run 100% as you will like them with your builders.. They will always make mistakes here & there that will need to be fixed prior to handover.

With a baby on the way, the last thing you want is to become a worry wart over the building process. Make your plans for the what you think will be worst case scenario in terms of handover, then if you find things get completed treat it as a bonus.

Jet79 · Mar 25, 2008 7:35 pm

Thanks Blackmax that's good advice.

I actually went in to the council today to fix a bungle the builder and council had made and was really happy with their response. Council's may be a pain to deal with a lot of the time but today I was really happy.

Having said that I still had to drive to two different councils today to get the right action to be taken and it took a lot of "that's not our problem, that's the old council" and vice versa. Once they stood up and said "yes that's our fault" I was finally able to get the application processes going again.

Yak_Chat · Mar 25, 2008 8:56 pm

Jet - Just have a pee on that fire Hydrant - Go on - it will make you feel lot better :wink:

I understand the frustrations, but as homereview says, it's not always that easy to get things merged, and when you merge, I;d think applications for new houses is at the back of the list.
Thing like rates notices, garbage services and heaps more of things for älready residents services will get fixed first. (Lets face it - they can creat more of an issue than all of the new home builders who are affected by the merge can.

I know that's not comforting, but it's probably to the point.

So my advice- relax - Councils are councils and they will take their own sweet time, and it will happen - just a tad more patience than was already expected may be required.
Steve