Implications of unpermitted bedroom.

[FreezingandHot]

Hi

I am looking at an 5 bedroom house which was originaly a 3 bedroom. A 2 story extention was added
but only 1 of the bedrooms is permitted the other I think has a lower than normal ceiling stud, I am thinking of closing off house extention and creating another living area so I could rent this out, who would I see about getting the 2nd bedroom permitted and would anyone recommend adding a small kitchen and shower to this
addition of the house. If this could be done it could possibly be cashflow +ve and a great investment.

Any thoughts.

FH

[cube]

Hi Patrick,

Depends where the house is!

I asked Auckland CC about doing something like this, and the answer was simple - you can't!

I don't think it is possible to get a permit retrospectively. Waitakere issue 'Safe and Sanitary' letters for unpermitted work (if they decide its not safe and sanitary, they can ask for the work to be reversed).

Kitchen areas are a potential problem - there has to be firewalls between the kitchen and any adjacent living area (including up/downstairs). In that's not in place, insurance will be difficult.

To answer your question - first stop is the council.

cube

[FreezingandHot]

Thanks Cube

Will ring and find out.

FH

[FreezingandHot]

Thanks for the reply!!

[SuperDad]

Hi FH.

What follows are just my thoughts. I'm thinking as I write, but these are the kinds of thing I would look at in your situation.

Have you viewed the information that the council holds on the property you are looking at? I'm not from Auckland, but Hamilton one can go into council and view all of the information they hold on a property. This will include all building permits that have been issued, and compliance certificates on completed works. In Hamilton such a search costs five dollars - my brother told me the other day that the same thing costs $13 in Auckland. (Chalk up another point to Hamilton!)

I was not sure what you meant in your post when you wrote "a two storey extension was added". Did you mean that a second storey was added to a one storey dwelling? Or did you mean that a two-storey unit was attached to the original residence (making one big house)? If the former, then it would be strage for only one of the two rooms to be permitted. If the latter (and all of what follows assumes this is what you mean), then I assume that the top storey was permitted as a bedroom, and the lower storey was converted (from a garage?) by the owners at some stage after the code of compliance check was performed by council.

In Hamilton, there is no longer a way of getting a retrospective permit for unpermitted works. There used to be provision for a "safe and sanitary" certificate on such works, now there is nothing. Its probably the same in Auckland. I was looking at a house recently with an unpermitted bedroom. I pointed out to the agent that, as the room was not permitted, the house should not be represented as a 3-bed house, but as a 2-bed house with office.

Have you checked the Building Code and the Auckland City Council, to see if either requires a minimum stud height for bedrooms? (Sometimes the building code allows for alternative solutions to such problems - check for these also.) If there is such a requirement, then there might not be much you can do, short of lifting the whole addition (if the room is on the ground floor) or raising the stud (if the room is on the second storey). But I'm no builder.

When looking at a house recently, I had a walk through with a specialist renovations builder. He was very helpful - certain problems that looked like big problems turned out to be little matters. He was also able to give us a good idea of what things would cost to fix to our liking. We factored these costs into an offer we made, which was rejected for being too low. But at least we knew what we were up for if we did get the property.

Regarding adding a kitchen and bathroom to the addition. If you were going to seal it off from the rest of the house as you suggest, then it would need such facilities if it does not already have them. That, together with costs associated in fixing the second bedroom and adding a living area, sounds pricey. Is buying a three bedroom house with a good size section and adding an ancilliary unit a better bet?

Just the rambling thoughts of a novice,

Paul.

[simoncoles]

Freezing Hot you may have already found your answer.
You have to look at the wording. Auckland City wont issue a "permit" if the work was already completed un permitted.

They may however issue a code of acceptance. Refer the link

http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/services/unapproved/default.asp

Hope this helps.

[FreezingandHot]

Hey Superdad,

Thanks for the comprehensive reply!!

I have just got off the phone with the council and there is a number of issues with the proposal I have such as property size, ceiling height etc..

I think that there has to be a lot of investigating before
any ink is put to paper, as you say adding another minor dwelling to a spare bit of land seems an easier process, I have to tink long and hard and get more advice on this strategy.

Thanks

FH.