VIC Received Building Notice from Council - Recourse?

[dsahlim1]

Hi,

I recently received a building notice from my council asking me to show cause with reason given in the notice that my house corner fence located within 9m of the point of intersecting street alignments has been built which is in excess of the 1m height measuring from footpath level without a building permit as required by the council building regulations.

I have explained to the council that I purchased the property 2 & 1/2 years ago in 2014 as it is and I am not the owner who built the corner fence, and the structure of the corner fence has not changed since I purchased the property in 2014, it has always been like that since my purchase. So I should not be held accountable for the construction of the corner fence because it was built prior to my purchase of the property, and also that I was not given any notice at all from the council concerning the fence when I purchased the property in 2014.

But the council said that I am required to show cause within 30 days of the notice, and there is also an application form I need to submit for council comments, and the submission will cost me $513.00.

Please kindly explain what should I do next.

Thank you,

 

[Rod]

Check the council is correct, including the date the regulation came into effect, if council is right, co-operate with the council to fix the situation. You may be able to convince the council to waive some council fees by co-operating.

You may not have caused the problem, but as the new land owner you have to fix it. Council cannot allow unsafe situations to continue as they then become partly liable by refusing to enforce their own regulations. Imagine the consequences if councils had no power to enforce regulations just because property was sold. All sorts of bad behaviour would result in unsafe buildings and no-one responsible for fixing them.

Your redress may be against the former land owner, not the council. You may have the right to sue the former land owner for causing your loss. Can't remember now if you have 3 or 6 years to start an action against the former owner starting from the time you found there was a problem.

So, Council goes after you, you go after the previous owner. If they didn't have the fence built, they go after the the people they bought from.

Makes sense this way. The previous owner can't arrange for someone to fix a fence on your property. That would only complicate things even more.

 

[dsahlim1]

Check the council is correct, including the date the regulation came into effect, if council is right, co-operate with the council to fix the situation. You may be able to convince the council to waive some council fees by co-operating.

You may not have caused the problem, but as the new land owner you have to fix it. Council cannot allow unsafe situations to continue as they then become partly liable by refusing to enforce their own regulations. Imagine the consequences if councils had no power to enforce regulations just because property was sold. All sorts of bad behaviour would result in unsafe buildings and no-one responsible for fixing them.

Your redress may be against the former land owner, not the council. You may have the right to sue the former land owner for causing your loss. Can't remember now if you have 3 or 6 years to start an action against the former owner starting from the time you found there was a problem.

So, Council goes after you, you go after the previous owner. If they didn't have the fence built, they go after the the people they bought from.

Makes sense this way. The previous owner can't arrange for someone to fix a fence on your property. That would only complicate things even more.

Thank you.