When it comes to building, close enough usually just isn’t good enough. When my neighbour’s builder made a mistake of 100 mm it meant he had to pull down part of the renovation and start all over again.
You might remember from my first Neighbour from hell post that I said the challenge would be making sure the built version of my neighbour’s renovation complied with the consent conditions.
Ah how prescient.
Recently I was moved to write to the council about this:
- Clause 21 - that there be louvres to the windows in the western rear wall designed, for privacy reasons, to be translucent and with restricted opening. No such louvres have been installed.
- Clause 22 - that window 9 is to be of fixed and obscure glass and that window 10 to have fixed obscure glass louvers to prevent a line of sight into the master bedroom of my house. The windows that have been installed are clear and openable.
- In addition, clause 26 states that the southern wall of bedroom 3 is to be setback a minimum of 900mm from the side boundary. The southern wall has been built within about 780mm of the boundary. (Note that this setback is in the building code because of fire regulations.)
After futile discussions with the neighbour regarding the breaches, I wrote to the council. Nothing has happened yet about the windows, but this week part of the recently built upper storey addition was rebuilt in order to put the wall in the right place.
The change has lots of repercussions for the surrounding elements - flashings, the roof below - not to mention holding up the works and adding a few thousand dollars more to the project.
So much effort, time and money that might have been saved by a little attention to detail.
The message? Check up on details - if you’re the renovator OR the neighbour of one.
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