Alterations needed to close levels off

[JCaine]

Hi All

I'm looking at buying a property that has 3 beddy, kitchen and bathroom upstairs and 2 beddy, kitchen and bathroom downstairs. Seperated buy a stair case.

I wanted to split them and rent them as seperate dwellings. It is just a case off sealing up the staircase door or is it more complicated than that?

Also I planned on splitting the power and water meters so they would be seperate.

What do I do about the postal address? Who do I need to speak to about adding an address?

Thanks

[WGN ex-property manager]

Likely to be way more complicated than that.

Depending on your council you are likely to need to create a firewall between the two dwellings (typically a double layer of fireline gib), so you're looking at ceiling work for the entire downstairs units, as well as a building permit, and potentially re-gibbing the walls as well.

Also worth talking to your insurance company before you go ahead as well.

[JCaine]

Hi Robin

Thanks , I thought it may be more hassle than it's worth.

[Neongreen]

Also there's development contributions to be paid if you're making another dwelling, which varies by council. (At least in Auckland)

[Harvey]

Also there's development contributions to be paid if you're making another dwelling, which varies by council. (At least in Auckland)

Are development contribution payable if you are keeping both units on the same title?

[eri]

if you want another address, wheelie bin, water meter, power account, off-street parking, expanded library, transport infra-structure etc.

you bet they will want your contribution

[Harvey]

Lets say Jcaine closes of the staircase and rents the floors separately. Can he do that with out paying development contributions?

[AMR]

Call it a room by room tenancy.

[eri]

is it possible to split power and water meters without the council cottoning on to what you are doing?

[Neongreen]

Yes, Eri, it's called a Check meter. Essentially one tenancy has a meter which records how much that tenancy uses, which is then used to work out the power split between the two. Subtract the check meter from the total to work out how much the other tenancy is using.

Lots of hassle and I would never rent there because I want to control my own power company choice. Water check meters are more commonplace and understandable because it's a flat rate.

[Baywatcher]

Yes, Eri, it's called a Check meter. Essentially one tenancy has a meter which records how much that tenancy uses, which is then used to work out the power split between the two. Subtract the check meter from the total to work out how much the other tenancy is using.

Lots of hassle and I would never rent there because I want to control my own power company choice. Water check meters are more commonplace and understandable because it's a flat rate.

Ive used a check meter for ten years on a one bedroom flat at the back of a house. Never had a problem.
The house reads the check meter monthly, emails the reading to myself, i calculate the power charge then half the line charge for the flat. I pay this amount to the house and invoice the flat. A win, win situation

[WGN ex-property manager]

Biggest risk is insurance.

If the place was rented as "2 flats" but not consented for it, and then burns down the insurance company will take a big step back and have a strong play for not paying out.

[Neongreen]

Ive used a check meter for ten years on a one bedroom flat at the back of a house. Never had a problem.
The house reads the check meter monthly, emails the reading to myself, i calculate the power charge then half the line charge for the flat. I pay this amount to the house and invoice the flat. A win, win situation

Hi Baywatcher,
That's all well and good, but I'd like a choice in power company. There's a big difference, and when I've looked at places to rent, any flat that had a check meter for power basically to me suggested a $5/week rent increase due to landlord incompetence when it comes to choosing a cheap power company. Not too much, but still influenced my choices.

Water is different because there's only one provider, so that's fine by me. Although I've had bad experiences in the past where a family member was being charged her water plus paying for the water for the 4 other people living in the minor dwelling on site, who ironically, had water included. That was more a rotten PM though. We had the last laugh, she ended up having to reimburse us out of her personal account.

[DaveW]

Insurance company definitely needs to be notified, as Robin pointed out.

The tenant upstairs could sub-let the downstairs to a boarder with the rent inclusive of power and water.