Neighbours

[leeton]

I need to share my frustrations with you guys...I have mentioned previously about my neighbour...well the sh*t has hit the fan...the trouble has been slowly brewing over a few months...I started extending the shed...only 3 metres...no permit...and she knew it...well guess or called the council...they came around and want me to submit plans for the deck, the roof over the deck, the spa..and the shed extension plans...bloody pain in the a*se...well time will tell...who will win the battle...I reckon we are good neighbours...not feralls...and the amount of work I have done for her (free)....and just one of those projects was her deck and pergola...and carport...with no permit...so who is ring the council tomoorow.
I don't want to sound like a whinger...but ...she could only talk to me over the fence...we could have talked about it...she didn't mind sipping champagne in the spa...when she was hot....that's my story...what do you think.:mad:

[Groggy]

...what do you think.:mad:

I think you don't know for sure, and you shouldn't "assume" in case it wasn't her.

You never know who has dobbed you in.

[leeton]

Sorry Groggy....she admitted she rang the council...:mad:

[bitingmidge]

So why don't you have a permit.

I am continually amazed at how "naughty" people feel to get away with building stuff without permits. OK we all do it, one day I will have a pergola which will not be legal too, but not a three metre shed extension, deck etc etc.

What's the motivation?

What's her motivation in dobbing?

What is dobbing on her going to achieve?

What's wrong with being squeaky clean??

cheers,

P

[craigb]

Why didn't you just go through the council in the first place? :confused:

Then everything is legal and above board. You have the peace of mind of knowing your extension complies and you can cheerfully ignore yur neighbour.

[craigb]

Midge beat me to it.

[leeton]

In reply to your questions...I put the spa in 8 years ago and built the deck about the same time...my ignorance...but I believed at the time if it wasn't over $7k...you didn't need a permit...I am now told I was wrong...never assume...I know...the shed was a small addition...I got a permit for my garage...so I am not all that bad...why dob me in...I don't know...whay dob her in...cause it is gunna cost me...why not...revenge...what else can I say.

[markharrison]

What's wrong with being squeaky clean??

If you had lived in Pittwater Shire Council area you would not have asked that question! Trust me!!!!!

Pittwater is run by The-Fairies-at-the-Bottom-of-the-Garden Inc.

I've spent $5000 to get approvals (architects, engineers, DA, yet another survey which is only five years older than the last one etc) to put in two windows and a door (with no privacy impacts) without extending the boundary of the dwelling. On top of that I will need to pay for a certifier, which will not be Pittwater Council on a matter principle.

Yet another reason I've had enough of Sydney and will be moving as soon as practicable.

[bitingmidge]

Yet another reason I've had enough of Sydney and will be moving as soon as practicable.

... and when you do there'll be no requisitions on your searches and no delays on settlement as a result, saving you many times the cost if you were to invest the money received immediately!


Trust me Mark, I have had decades of frustration, but it's always paid off in the long run. As I have said on another thread, if people want to bypass the law, that's their business, but they have no right to complain when they get busted. (and leeton isn't!)

Cheers,
P

[markharrison]

I'm not suggesting that folks bypass the law. I got a parking fine a couple of weeks ago from a Pittwater Council ranger for stopping in a bus zone. Never mind the Bus Zone sign was almost illegible, five meters above the ground, almost completely hidden by trees and a bus hasn't stopped there in living memory. I was still technically in the "wrong" and I just paid up and shut up because I know I can't win.

People have been playing fast and loose with councils in the past and it did have to come to an end. However, as usual councils have over-reacted and Pittwater Council has taken it to its illogical conclusion.

I even had the colour I wanted to paint my house knocked back. I didn't want to paint it air-sea rescue orange with purple trim or anything else stupid. I wanted to paint it something similar to Dulux Pale Mustard (See this link). Nope the DCP (section D3.4 for my suburb) says that "external colours shall be dark and earthy tones". Never mind that these colours are totally unsuitable as the main colour in a hot climate and will actually cause the installation of more and more air conditioning units to combat the thermal effects of this same insane decision.

I'm led to understand that if you want to change the colour of your house in Pittwater that you may actually have to submit a DA. This has not been tested by council so far but the time is not far off I suspect. I had a council ranger quizzing me when I was painting my windows (for heavens sake!) with primer. To which I replied that if he didn't like the primer colour there was another brush on the bench and that he was welcome to come up and help me finish putting on the top coat. He declined!

[BrisBen]

Geez Mark, It isn't until you read the paperwork that you see things like this:

"Television antennas, satellite dishes and other telecommunications equipment must be minimised and screened as far as possible from public view"

did the people who approved that kind of ordinance think about it ???

sure you can have Satellite TV - just build a big screen around it so the dish cant be seen, hmmm I wonder if that would affect the reception or would the council be willing to pay for all the services to be run underground to avoid spoiling the "visual landscape"

[chromis]

You have (probally) two other neighbours who also could of made a complaint. Even if next-doors did blab, the odds were there one of them would of.

To save the drama, sometimes it's better to play by the book. Especially when there's an obvious or potential issue that might surface and bite you on the ar*se.

[Rusty]

Aww, shoot. Is this all fair dinkum? Isn't the coolest house in the street the one where the weirdo resident did his own reno's? I'm only a renter, so please excuse my naievete, but surely the council can't tell you which colour to paint your frikkin house? There's a house a block or two away from where I grew up that is notorious 'cos the owner did his own (unqualified) three story reno before planning went nuts- it's as ugly as hell, but still standing. I love that spirit; that makes a home unique-it's only the suburbs, after all.

Say it ain't so!

Rusty.

[maglite]

Rusty,
It seems to be the way these days.
a shire close to us stipulates what roofing iron is acceptable sqm and all that....something about reflective heat or whatever.
Other suburbs do stipulate what color you can paint your house.
A mate lives in Maylands and his agreement with the developer was 3 A4 pages long.....what he could and couldnt do.
They policed it too something that other mobs dont do....the others rely on the neighbours who are concerned about their "investment"

[Shedhand]

Why didn't you just go through the council in the first place? :confused:

Then everything is legal and above board. You have the peace of mind of knowing your extension complies and you can cheerfully ignore yur neighbour.

My last house had a big gum tree in the back yard and blind freddie could see it was sick. The neighbors said the council had to approve the cutting down of trees on private property :confused::confused:. So, being the good law-abiding citizen I am , I invited the council dude in charge of trees to inspect the tree and approve its removal. Nope! Wasn't gonna happen citizens. They got an arborist in (at their - or more correctly, ratepayer's expense) whose considered opinion it was that the tree was quite ok .
3 months later, while I was in Qld on hols a bleedin' ant infested branch about 4 feet in circumference smashed off in a wind and crushed my brand new garden shed which the insurance company paid to replace (less my $100 excess) at a cost of $1560 bucks. There are 23 councils in Tasmania (used to be 40+ until Labor won government and amalgamated them) for a total population of 498,000 people :eek:. You think you've got it bad.:mad: