Building Permit update

So, by way of update, we were told this afternoon by Arden that we have four options:

1.       We can seek written clarification from Council that Hebel is a “like material” and provide it to Arden;

2.       Change the home to brick and carry the additional costs of building;

3.       Sign the Deed (the terms are completely not negotiable);

4.       Cancel the contract, and they are telling us they will charge us fees for cancellation.

Quite why we have to take steps to fulfil Arden’s obligations to procure the Building Permit is not clear to us, but in the interests of keeping things moving we called Council and were told that Hebel should fall into ‘like material’… only they aren’t able to put anything in writing. So, that doesn’t tick Arden’s option number 1.

We spoke to some building surveyors we know and were told that ‘like material’ easily covers Hebel.

More importantly, they said that the building surveyor’s job is simply to assess whether the plans comply with the building regulations. Covenants are not included in building regulations, so whether or not the materials breach a Covenant is irrelevant; the building surveyor is not required or able to take notice of the Covenant in deciding whether to grant the building permit.

That being the case, we can’t see why the building surveyor (assuming he’s acting purely in the scope of his duties) would be requiring us to sign papers acknowledging a non-existent breach of covenant and indemnifying Arden.

At any rate, we have asked whether we can fix their problem by having a different building surveyor issue the Building Permit. Hopefully we have an answer tomorrow…