It's a bit of a saga, but the Logan City Council had been contacted (for some unknown reason) by the selling agent of a property we bought last year. We didn't know this until recently when a letter arrived saying that we had to address an unapproved patio cover.
We knew it wasn't council approved when we bought the house though it was by no means dangerous. Unfortunately we have to make it council approved. The property is currently rented out to a good tenant who pays on time.
We have a few options.
1) Rip it down, which will upset the tenants as a patio cover was there when they signed the lease, so we may be in breach of the tenancy agreement.
2) Rip it down and build a whole new patio cover at significant expense. Based on previous quotes for other patio covers it would be around $10K to replace. Which would chew up almost 2 years rental profit.
3) Rip it down and replace it with sails. This would work out cheaper than a new patio cover, but may not be sufficient to avoid a breach in the tenancy agreement.
4) Try and make the existing structure "approvable", which may be quite expensive as a lot of corners were cut by the person who put it up (the previous owner).Has anyone come across this scenario before and if so, how did you address it? On another note, does anyone know of any good builders on Brisbane's southside?
Thanks for any help or advice.
If you rip down the cover and have it rebuilt you can claim it as an improvement and claim depreciation on it. It might be deemed an improvement as it is being improved beyond the state it was in when you purchased it and you are not repairing it as you are replacing it entirely. This is a grey area of tax law and it most likely will be deemed an improvement rather than as a repair it might be worth discussing with your accountant what they think will be the ruling.
I had to replace a gas hot water system due to the government changing the laws pertaining to gas hot water systems being inside bathrooms. Strange really as the house was ex housing commission which meant the government put the gas hot water system inside the bathroom in the first place. What really annoyed me was that I only found out about the law change when a plumber came to service the hot water system and advised me of the legality of my hot water service.
Firstly I'd like to just point out that it's not a 'council approval' as almost everyone thinks – there is no such thing. It is state legislation that building work requires approval. Logan City Council may employ certifiers that do building approvals, however there are hundreds of private certifiers in QLD that can do building approvals all over the state.
My solutions:
1) Remove the roofing – If the patio is a derelict timber structure with say iron sheet roofing, you may have a hard time getting building approval. You could argue with the council that if you take the roof off the patio, then it would be considered an 'unroofed pergola' which many councils accept does not require approval. The reason why I say 'many councils' is because each one of them has their own opinion on the QLD legislation. I suggest contacting the building dept. of Logan C.C (especially the contact person on the letter they sent you saying you need approval) and discuss this option.
2) Pull it down and tell the council it's gone – What you may not realise is that if you are given a timeframe to act and do nothing about it, the council can take court action against you. This has happened before. Big fines. Discuss with the council what their intentions are so you can get a feel for it.
3) Get a Stratco or similar patio cover built – this is a much cheaper alternative than getting a timber patio built, especially if you do it yourself (which may not be an option). Shop around. Get Stratco to provide a cost of a kit and installation, or contact local handymen and ask how much they can put it up for you for. Remember that having a decent patio compared to a crappy one will improve your house value.
4) Go see a private building certifier – call them up and explain the problem. In order to get approval, you'll have to either get the plans drafted or draw them yourself. Some certifiers won't accept owner drawn plans, so discuss that. They will then need to rubber stamp the plans and give you the approval. Next they need to do the final inspection. They may not particulary care and just give you the final certificate, or they may ask you to upgrade the sizes. Remember, they don't care about workmanship. They care about the rafter size and spacings, beam size, guttering and stormwater connected. They couldn't care less if the previous owner wasn't the best handyman.
Good luck!
littleguybigworld
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