CAUTION Dual Living/ Duplex / Granny Flat Brisbane City Council Action Against Owners

Hi All
BCC has begun to issue show cause and enforcement notices against people renting out dual living or granny flats or unapproved duplexes separately.

A Qld Court of Appeal decision determining that a house can not include discrete classes of people living in distinct areas of the dwelling without it being classified as a multi-unit dwelling.

In plain english this means that it is not permissible to lease out a primary and secondary dwelling to separate parties, at least in BCC area, if there is no planning approval for a multi-unit dwelling.

I have seen enforcement notices take 2 forms thus far,

1. If the dwelling is on low density residential land

At the expiration of the term of the current lease agreement but no later than 12 months from the date of this enforcement notice, owners are required to regularise the use of the premises to ensure compliance with the House Code
-1 single lease agreement over whole premises
-1 letterbox, water meter, power meter

And then to either provide a stat dec that this has been done within 30 days of the completion of the works, or in some instances it is requiring certification of compliance

2. If the dwelling is low-medium density land

Requiring the owners to submit a development application for a material change of use to multi unit or single unit dwellings, within a specific period of time.
If no MCU is applied for or given, regularise the dwelling as per 1 above.


Maximum penalties exceed $180k for an individual who fails to comply with an enforcement notice.

If you have received an enforcement notice, you have 20 days to appeal it so you need to get in contact with a town planner NOW.

If you have received a show cause notice, contact your town planner now and see if you can avoid progressing to an enforcement notice.

If you lease out any dual living/ duplex / granny flat or other type arrangement for a dwelling zoned for a house, but with separate lease agreements, contact a town planner now and seek advice.

I am willing to look at anything above without charging anyone fees, fees will be payable if you need my planning firms help to try and resolve the situation.

This will affect thousands of properties across Brisbane. It looks like they are starting on 1 side of the city and going to work across it, as most of my notices are from within 1 distinct area of Brisbane.

Email me at the PRO Town Planners address.

Darryl
 
it's all funny to do this until the brisbane cycle turns round and there are rental shortages... then the bureaucrats realise that perhaps they are the problem
 
I personally think it is going too far on places that have approved Granny Flats. A big issue in this is developers who have been building new stock as dual living and have sold to investors based on that.
 
My guess is when they are advertised for rent, realestate.com.au

The new builds are easier to find because the know the building companies who have been doing it.
 
UPDATE
The New Town Plan is not going to help people with this, in fact it is even worse.


Any development for a secondary dwelling is:
(a) a maximum of 80m2 in gross floor area;
(b) located within 20m of the dwelling house;
(c) occupied by one or more members of the same household as the dwelling house.

Household is defined as
An individual or a group of two or more related or unrelated people who reside in the dwelling, with the common intention to live together on a long-term basis and who make common provision for food or other essentials for living. The term does not include individuals living in rooming accommodation.

It seems fairly clear that BCC's intention is to not allow separate renting of secondary dwellings, even if the primary dwelling is owner occupier.

Darryl
 
I have to say that I agree with this assessment completely and I think it is a great thing that Darryl is drawing public attention to this. It will no doubt affect many 'investment' buyers who were misled into purchasing these properties by marketing companies on the basis that they could be dual tenanted.

I am aware that The Investors Club is one such property marketing company who have sold a number of these units to their members on the basis that the properties could be dual tenanted, when legally they can't. In fact, right in front of me I have a TIC property profile for one of these properties which says:
"Two rental incomes will be achieved with this property with NO body corporate, what a great concept" in another part it says "The concept is the house is built to cater for two rental properties under one roof, what a great idea."

I would recommend that anyone who has found themselves to have been misled by anyone marketing these properties, to seek some independent advice moving forward. Judging by Darryl's comments in this article I can see that he may be one such person with the knowledge to properly dissect and understand what might really be going on here.

By this I mean it is very important not to blindly follow the advice of the people who sold you the property, or those connected to and supporting the builder/developer of these properties.

I am aware that there are certain individuals who have been campaigning to gather support for solutions which steer any blame for this away from themselves. They may appear to have your best interests at heart but be warned. In my opinion they have a very good reason to be focusing your attention on blaming the BCC for this mess, and buyers of these properties need to be aware and very careful of this. There's an old saying which says "Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me."

Don't be fooled for a second time!
 
It seems fairly clear that BCC's intention is to not allow separate renting of secondary dwellings, even if the primary dwelling is owner occupier.

I wonder how this might apply to a boarder staying in a secondary dwelling.

The RTA allows up to 3 boarder to stay with the owner of the premises (from memory). How would the council distinguish between a boarder arrangement, and two separate households?
(Assuming one electric and water account.)
 
I wonder how this might apply to a boarder staying in a secondary dwelling.

The RTA allows up to 3 boarder to stay with the owner of the premises (from memory). How would the council distinguish between a boarder arrangement, and two separate households?
(Assuming one electric and water account.)

It is all a matter of degree. However, a key factor is whether the occupier has the right to exclude people from their area. So a boarder would not, but if you did a lease per room, they would.

If it came down to a court case decision on it, it is quite technical and the court would weigh the factors. If no one complains, then it is not going to come to that. If people are renting out the dwelling separately through gumtree, realestate.com.au etc. the council does not need a complaint

D
 
I've been starting to look at the idea of dual living properties in order to help buy a property in an area we would like to live in 10 years +, but at today's prices.
The main problem with this being that the areas we like (Sunshine Coast or northern NSW) typically have low yields therefore making them harder to hold so dual living properties sound like a way to get around this.
Is it statewide that councils prohibit this type of arrangement or is it on a per council basis?
Do landlords in these situations simply build water, electricity etc into the rent or do they set up separate meters?

Thanks .
 
I've been starting to look at the idea of dual living properties in order to help buy a property in an area we would like to live in 10 years +, but at today's prices.
The main problem with this being that the areas we like (Sunshine Coast or northern NSW) typically have low yields therefore making them harder to hold so dual living properties sound like a way to get around this.
Is it statewide that councils prohibit this type of arrangement or is it on a per council basis?
Do landlords in these situations simply build water, electricity etc into the rent or do they set up separate meters?

Thanks .

Council Areas.

Ipswich now allows them, Logan is coming. Townsville and the old pine rivers shire (part of Moreton Bay) is also possible on the right block.
 
Council Areas.

Ipswich now allows them, Logan is coming. Townsville and the old pine rivers shire (part of Moreton Bay) is also possible on the right block.

I can't see BCC be part of this anytime soon, since the new draft doesn't have this?
Logan public exhibition closed end of April for the proposed which allows dual living/dual key, so wondering when they will gazette this?
 
Council Areas.

Ipswich now allows them, Logan is coming. Townsville and the old pine rivers shire (part of Moreton Bay) is also possible on the right block.

Do you think that in Ipswich and Logan prices will go up and desribabitlty will go up now that essentially it's two dwellings on a single block of land?

What normally happens when a region becomes dual occ. Ok?
Sorry haven't had much experience in dual oc
 
I don't understand why BCC is not taking the view of allowing dual occupancy (with correct fire ratings) and making money from the thousands of households who are doing this illegally.

It solves rental shortages and could be a money spinner. I reckon if dual living was allowable, there would be a lot of people who would be happy to pay a little and do this legally.

There is no way I would take the risk of doing this but I would most certainly look at doing it if it was legal.
 
I don't understand why BCC is not taking the view of allowing dual occupancy (with correct fire ratings) and making money from the thousands of households who are doing this illegally.

It solves rental shortages and could be a money spinner. I reckon if dual living was allowable, there would be a lot of people who would be happy to pay a little and do this legally.

There is no way I would take the risk of doing this but I would most certainly look at doing it if it was legal.

I don't think there is a rental shortage....not in Logan anyway
 
Same, have a rental on the market currently.

Lots of applications but have all been 'ferals.' It's in the Logan area, so I guess comes with the territory.
 
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