Town Planning

Back when Mum and Dad bought the land and built the house in which I sit, the standard wisdom was that as long as you had the deeds for the land, everything was golden. You own the land, you own the property on it. Simples. Mum and Dad did everything properly and had their plans and the building approved.

Years later, the deeds were assigned to me.

It became apparent that things had moved on. Through work, I became aware that properties where the deeds were incomplete sold at a discount. Buyers are nervous about deed issues. Ultimately, only a problem if I'm selling, but hey, why not sort it out now?

Since the building was approved, there have been some changes. There's a pool out back, accompanied by a home made shed. The terrace by the kitchen now has a roof (it gets a lot of sun!) and one of the car ports has been converted into my office. None of this should be contentious - but there are administrative hoops to jump through.

The whole thing will take about six months, promised the architect. Two years on, we've finally got stage one (of four) done. Things can move slowly in this part of the world.

When I started the process, the architect explained to me that the roof over the terrace might get pinged - as it's not on the original plans and is too close to the boundary.

The results are in:

  1. We need to build a pavement on the road in front of the property. The pavement will begin at the corner of our plot, because a track runs up the side of our plot, which is de facto a road. It will then terminate at the sidewall of our neighbour, a vineyard. The sole impact of the pavement will be to annoy our neighbours opposite, who park their cars there. But rules is rules.
  2. My office used to be a carport. We need permission for that. Fair enough.
  3. We have a pool, which we had approval for, but which needs to be added to the plans. Fair enough.
  4. The roof on the terrace has been noted - the jury's out on whether we need to remove the roof. Remember, it's too close to the plot boundary.
  5. We have a shed near the pool. Breeze blocks and a tin roof. We store sunbeds and pool maintenance stuff in there. The planners want it extended, it's too far from the plot boundary.

Read 4 & 5 again. See it? Yes - we may need to remove a roof as it's too close to next door, and extend another roof as it's too far from next door. Next door being a vineyard with no dwelling on it.

Sigh.

For the moment, we do nothing. Stage two begins now. I can't for the life of me remember what stage 2 is, but I daresay all will become clear. I'll update you in a couple of years.

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