Job in Mt Eden,
I was contacted to meet on site and discuss drawing up a new basement for a family. It was a 2-storey house on piles and they wanted to dig out and turn it into a rumpus room underneath. So far it all sounds pretty straight forward.
I went away to draw up a quote and think about any issues that may come up from doing this.
– One issue was that there was going to be retaining walls all around with the drain coil going into the existing soak hole, sometimes council will ask for a soak hole test if they see any new drainage going in
– Another was that this property was in a Residential Zone 1 which means that any external alteration will need a resource consent. Internal alterations were permitted
When meeting back with the clients I explained both of those issues and we agreed to lodge and see what happens. We also agreed that surely this would be considered an internal alteration (permitted) as from a birds eye view nothing would be changing and no change seen from the road (considered affected streetscape). Even standing beside the house you would find it hard to notice the proposed amendments as the basement would basically be underground. But anyway its good to let clients know that with council anything is possible.
Sure enough they requested a Resource consent. Meanwhile the building consent had been signed and approved, on the condition of the resource consent though.
So I typed up a Report for the Resource consent application and photoshopped some before and after pictures (basically the same) and submitted it with a deposit cheque. I must note that the resource consent was approved and sent out within a week. So that is really good.
But the part I had trouble with was that the council asked the clients for more money. And if anyone knows about resource consents, they cost more then you would think. I was filthy about the council asking for more so I had to make some enquiries. The clients actually got a refund in the end from their initial deposit.
There we go, that blog may have interested a very tiny percentage and put the rest of you to sleep.
thanks for reading