Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Dec 11, 2013 5:02 pm We were told that building was going to commence on our house melbourne cup week (1st week in Nov) I then discovered due to inaction on our builders part that they had not even obtained developer approval, let alone a building permit and being ready to begin. After not returning emails for weeks, Our builder finally responded today (after I went in to the display yesterday and politely vented my frustrations while customers were walking in and out) This is part of the email I received: "After issuing the permit on Friday our building surveyor came back to us and has advised us that the garage wall exceeds the 3 meters average as required by the MCP. This is the only outstanding item for us to achieve the building permit. We have two options to rectify this issue; 1. We can move the house over 800mm (total 1m) from the boundary line *please note that we will have to go back to developer to get approval (10-12 working days) 2. We can apply for report & consent to exceed the envelope height restrictions with the council *please note that this is a lengthy process and cannot provide a time frame of when this can be approved" So I guess I have a couple of questions - Can they issue a building permit then revoke it because they missed something? I would have thought once it was issued, it was issued. If we had of started before he realised then what would have happened seeing as we had a building permit. And secondly are the two options given the only ways to rectify it? Going off my plans we are an average of 150mm over the 3m average required, but that is only using the 3 measurements provided, is that all they use to calculate it? We have a cut/fill line (cut at the rear, fill at the front) about 8 m from the front, would shifting that line and cutting more/filling less fix it? This is not a small local builder, they are people who build many houses. Isn't this something they should have noticed when drawing the plans? ie, "hmmm, the 3 wall heights I have on this garage wall are all above 3m so its going to be above the 3m allowed..." The 3m height is not a local council specific type thing, its a building regulation! I had already lost almost all confidence in this builder a long time ago, and now its just getting worse. We were told we'd be in by christmas, no we won't even have a permit until next year. Once you factor in Jan shutdown we won't even start till Feb at the earliest. I'm beyond devestated and really need some words of wisdom Re: are these our only options?? - garage wall height help! 2Dec 11, 2013 6:39 pm I'm sure that council regulations differ greatly in each area , however we had the same problem with our garage height exceeding the regulations, all we had to do was have our neighbours sign a dispensation form saying they agreed to this extra height on their boundary and these were submitted and approved to council without a problem. Re: are these our only options?? - garage wall height help! 3Dec 11, 2013 11:16 pm We had tis problem too. When we finally got the ok from the neighbour, the council still said No. After discussions, they said we could increase the cut and fill by 20cm or move the house over. We choose the cut to 9.4 from 9.6, our site costs ended up the same. Less piers more retaining wall. We had a July start booked with PD. this issue stared in late May and we finally got council ok the first week in August. Good luck! Re: are these our only options?? - garage wall height help! 4Dec 16, 2013 3:25 pm I spoke to council and it turns out that the height regulation changed and its now 3.2m. So I chased the builder and let them know that the surveyor was wrong, and it was finally reissued. I've just now got the building permit in the mail though, and it wrongly has us listed as being in a BAL area when our property was removed when they changed it in August. Hopeless.... Thank you again Simeon.. I will call my certifier for that. Have a good day 4 5142 ok thanks - yes was wondering if that should have been listed as Option Three! 2 7731 Howdy all. I am looking for feedback on what people would do to maximise and make an area as flat as possible. First, out the front of the house is a sloping hill, pretty… 0 20138 |