Please help, I am building a house at Arise Rochedale where there is a building covenant. I checked every details in the covenant and it clearly allows garage to be built zero to boundary. My designer also called and asked the covenant review board if we could build our garage zero to boundary on the right side. They said yes we can. So we designed our garage as 0.2m to the right boundary.
However when we applied for the covenant approval from the review board yesterday, they just rejected our application and asked us to move our house to the left side by 0.8m so that our garage will be 1m to the right boundary. They said our neighbor got approval to build their garage zero to boundary on the same side a year ago. They can't approve two garages to be built too close.
Although they admit that they made a mistake that they allowed two garages to be built zero to the same wall, they won't approve my plans until I agree to make the change.
We could have built the garage on the left side or do other designs if they have told us the situation at beginning. Now we have signed the building contract, finalized all plans, done foundation design and everything. I don't know how much extra it will cost to make the change. And I really don't want to move my house just because they made a mistake.
My questions are:
1) I didn't really break any rules written in the covenant as it clearly allows garage zero to boundary. But the covenant says everything needs to be reviewed and approved by the review board. Is this considered as a breach ?
2) I didn't buy the land from the developer who made the covenant, I bought it from someone who bought it from the developer previously. But the sales contract included the covenant as a special condition. People say building covenant is a private contract between the developer and the first buyer, so not enforceable on subsequent buyers. Does it apply here ?
Do I have to make the change or can I just apply to city council for an approval ?