Built a shed without permit

[Jack91]

So,
Ive built a 10x8x3.6m high (at sides) shed without a permit. Its way overbuilt, 150x50x4 beams, 12mm plates, m18 bolts, bolt cages in huge footings, 1.9 purlin etc.

Ive talked to an engineer and the process to rectify this seems hard and expensive, i also need a dispensation as im closer than a metre to boundary aswell.

Does anyone know approx what $ im looking at? Itll need to be drawn by a draftsman, signed off by an engineer, then go through council as far as i understand it.

Ive also got a 6x6 deck but i think thatll be pretty straightforward to get through. Im happy to take the sheets off that roof if i have to

Any help appreciated.

[Jack91]

Stupidly, council only want to come out as the house had a pool before i bought it, even though it doesnt any more, they want to sight that its gone. Obviously questions will be asked when they do that and i want to have my ducks in a row

[Sam]

Council will want to put you through the entire process, applying for a DA, Construction Certificate, etc. They will charge you for each of these steps as per their schedule of fees. Normally around $1500 which includes application fees, inspections, etc. Draftsman will want around $500, engineer will be your biggest cost as they have to sign off on in, i'd expect $3500 for this alone. As long as other sheds are allowed to be built closer than 900mm to the boundary in your area then it should be acceptable. Your best move is to be proactive with council and engage them, admitting your error and moving forward. Just be ready for the $$. you should be able to include the deck in your DA as well which will also need to be drawn up and engineered. Good luck

[Charliewool]

Originally Posted by Jack91

Stupidly, council only want to come out as the house had a pool before i bought it, even though it doesnt any more, they want to sight that its gone. Obviously questions will be asked when they do that and i want to have my ducks in a row

I had a house with a pool Caroline Springs... Council contacted me to inspect pool and pool fence, (pool & fence both had permits) and I crapped meself because of the 9m x 4m enclosed carport I’d erected at yard end of drive-thru garage... 600mm from boundary (NO permit!)
Turned out the council people didn’t blink an eye at my bogus extension... Their department was POOLS & POOL FENCES!!
Don’t panic... methinks you’ll be fine!
(Melton council btw!)

[hayseed]

Why are the Council now involved..??

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Charliewool

I had a house with a pool Caroline Springs... Council contacted me to inspect pool and pool fence, (pool & fence both had permits) and I crapped meself because of the 9m x 4m enclosed carport I’d erected at yard end of drive-thru garage... 600mm from boundary (NO permit!)
Turned out the council people didn’t blink an eye at my bogus extension... Their department was POOLS & POOL FENCES!!
Don’t panic... methinks you’ll be fine!
(Melton council btw!)

The whole 'not my job' culture paid off for once

[.:4:.]

I have an illegal dwelling on my property. It was already there before i bought the place and its over 5 years old so i have titles insurance, meaning if it needs to be knocked to access the sewer main its built on top of, it either gets rebuilt or i get financially compensated. It was built in 05 and i bought the property in 2012. So clearly the council never got involved with the prior owner. Unless you have boored neighbors, the good old dont ask dont tell keeps the council away.

[nstg8a]

We have a big development going on next door, part of that is a new road beside our neighbours. They have an unpermitted double garage which will face the new road, council is building them a nice concrete driveway to access their illegal garage....

[Jack91]

Originally Posted by Charliewool

I had a house with a pool Caroline Springs... Council contacted me to inspect pool and pool fence, (pool & fence both had permits) and I crapped meself because of the 9m x 4m enclosed carport I’d erected at yard end of drive-thru garage... 600mm from boundary (NO permit!)
Turned out the council people didn’t blink an eye at my bogus extension... Their department was POOLS & POOL FENCES!!
Don’t panic... methinks you’ll be fine!
(Melton council btw!)

This is what im hoping happens, but i want to make sure i have the funds if it gets picked.

To make it even more complicated, the boundary its close to is a vacant block. Only a matter of time until that gets built on, and itll definitly get picked up then.

[Work Horse]

Dude you're going to jail.

[Jack91]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

I have an illegal dwelling on my property. It was already there before i bought the place and its over 5 years old so i have titles insurance, meaning if it needs to be knocked to access the sewer main its built on top of, it either gets rebuilt or i get financially compensated. It was built in 05 and i bought the property in 2012. So clearly the council never got involved with the prior owner. Unless you have boored neighbors, the good old dont ask dont tell keeps the council away.

Funnily enough i bought title insurance for the old car port that was there before my shed. Thought did cross my mind to maybe bend some truth but the for sale ad is still on the net so 1 google search and id be in a bit of trouble

[Rallye Sport]

I'd have thought it'd have been picked up by now. They do aerial maps of they're municipalities and just overlay it with the previous one to see whats different, if it'd been deemed a problem they'd have made contact I'd have thought.

As previously stated though, engage with them and under no circumstances feed them any BS, they'll see through you like grannies undies on washing day.

[roKWiz]

Sometimes councils just don't want to get involved not worth the paperwork. So don't mention it and they'll probably not even bring it up.

My council has to be one of the dumbest in Victoria, happens here all the time.

[MercuryT]

Don't worry about Council.

Just do it (usually due to nosey neighbours or matched up aerial photographs) and if they find out pay the fees you would have anyway.

[jstanovic]

Our pool was recently inspected by the “council”, the lady that provided Ickes up to check it all was actually part of the Lifesaving Club and was contracted to check pools...

Yours is a bit different but I wouldn’t do or mention anything, if they say something it’s “yes sir” to everything and do as they say and keep your fingers crossed. Get the wrong council person when they’re in a bad mood and they will make life somewhat difficult.

[MercuryT]

Pools are treated very different to a shed.

Pools are a massive death trap if not complying.

[pottery beige]

paint it green and tell them it's lawn

$35

[Jack91]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

paint it green and tell them it's lawn

$35

Its all zincalume so i might just wait for a cloudy day for the inspection and hope they dont trip over it.

[Charliewool]

Originally Posted by jstanovic

Our pool was recently inspected by the “council”, the lady that provided Ickes up to check it all was actually part of the Lifesaving Club and was contracted to check pools...

Yours is a bit different but I wouldn’t do or mention anything, if they say something it’s “yes sir” to everything and do as they say and keep your fingers crossed. Get the wrong council person when they’re in a bad mood and they will make life somewhat difficult.

Yes... Above post jogged my memory!!...
The people from Melton Council that attended my house were actually contractors, employed by council solely for pool safety inspections!
I’ll bet Ballarat uses similar?... They won’t give 2 hoots about your “illegal” structure

[prktkljokr]

Pool inspector is just that, "A pool inspector", they have no interest in the rest of your property, they just want to see the pool.

I reckon you could even take them for a tour through the shed and they wont batter a eyelid

Here in my suburb you can only have a shed 10% of your land size, but If you annoy them enough at each council meeting you can get bigger

[sneaky]

a dodgy trick that i have heard of to get a shed/renovations approved was to alter your plans with all the 'existing' changes (your big shed) then put an application in for a small garden shed.

If council approve the small shed their records will show a big shed already exists.

I have heard of someone using this method to approve home renovations/extensions/alterations.

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by Jack91

Stupidly, council only want to come out as the house had a pool before i bought it, even though it doesnt any more, they want to sight that its gone. Obviously questions will be asked when they do that and i want to have my ducks in a row

Two things that don't go together very well from personal experience

Common sense and Councils .

The stories I could tell you about our farcical local mob . They must have a predisposition to dumb and difficult to deal with.

[Blue Dog]

Originally Posted by Jack91

So,
Ive built a 10x8x3.6m high (at sides) shed without a permit. Its way overbuilt, 150x50x4 beams, 12mm plates, m18 bolts, bolt cages in huge footings, 1.9 purlin etc.

Ive talked to an engineer and the process to rectify this seems hard and expensive, i also need a dispensation as im closer than a metre to boundary aswell.

Does anyone know approx what $ im looking at? Itll need to be drawn by a draftsman, signed off by an engineer, then go through council as far as i understand it.

Ive also got a 6x6 deck but i think thatll be pretty straightforward to get through. Im happy to take the sheets off that roof if i have to

Any help appreciated.

Set some time aside to appear in court & take your wallet with you.....................

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/austr...ent/ar-BBW32XL

[Citroënbender]

“I built an isolation room to survive Caromavirus, Your Honour.”
- Case Dismissed!

[satria]

Can you supply photos of the pool that isn't there any more? And then use angles that don't show the shed?

Play it off that you are saving them time & money by not needing to send someone?

[Charliewool]

Originally Posted by satria

Can you supply photos of the pool that isn't there any more? And then use angles that don't show the shed?

Play it off that you are saving them time & money by not needing to send someone?

Yeah? And then who gets to drive the council funded car to get the donuts & coffee whilst on their “essential” tour around the countryside?

[ford71V8]

I once had a carport approved by our council after agreeing with them to plant a shrub at one of the posts to soften the look


Really?
Yeah sure, I'll plant something there.
When it dies in a week what then?

[roddy1960]

About twenty years ago now I guess I decided my roof needed a repaint . At the time we were on water restrictions so I thought it might be the right thing to do to let the council know that as I scraped off a section of old paint I't quickly wash off the flakes etc into the gutter . Thought I'd do that in case some one thought I was breaching the water usage . Hose was only to be used as a section was done .

Got some lady from council to talk to and told her that on the phone and this is pretty close to how our dialogue went after I'd explained the reason of my call.

Council rep "You do realise there are water restrictions "

Me "Yes , that's why I'm ringing "

Council rep... "I don't think we can allow that . It's wasting water"

Me. " I don't have any flowers or garden to water but if I did I can water by hand . That's okay but if I want to have a few seconds to rinse the paint off the roof , that's not allowed "

She got a bit snappy and said " Oh wait I'll go and check " .

A minute or two later she returned .. She said ..

"Oh ..They said it'll be alright then but be on notice that we'll be watching you " I should have called her bluff on that one. Imagine someone sitting there all day waiting to see if you used a hose or not .

That's exactly what she said . Big Brother was speaking eh ..

I ended up not doing it and a few years later replaced the roof with a colorbond one ... Had a couple of other issues since too that made the term " help from your local council" more akin to " hell from your local council"... Driveway one only last year was a similar disagreeable one too .

[Rallye Sport]

Didn't take long for this to turn into a council bashing thread. Psst... I heard they wear lycra and ride bicycles too.

They're damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they let it slide they're slack bastards if they do it to the letter of the law they're mindless bureaucrats.
Pretty simple really if you mod a car you get a permit or run the risk and cop it like a grown up if you get caught, same goes for a shed.

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by Rallye Sport

Didn't take long for this to turn into a council bashing thread. Psst... I heard they wear lycra and ride bicycles too.

They're damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they let it slide they're slack bastards if they do it to the letter of the law they're mindless bureaucrats.
Pretty simple really if you mod a car you get a permit or run the risk and cop it like a grown up if you get caught, same goes for a shed.

The only time, well mostly from my experiences, bar getting cars defected, you run into issues if people have nothing better to do then complain. My granny flat, the previous owners who got it built never had any council issues and you can see that from the street. No council worker will look up approvals unless they are asked. The only thing i ever got a nasty letter about was some person decided to report my old diesil ute to the epa because when i had a boost leak it smoked a bit under load. Ironically i already knew that and the car was booked in but awaiting an intercooler to arrive at the mechanics.