Council threatens to fine family over kids cubby house.

[TVR-190]

IT didn't cost much to build but that could change dramatically if a New South Wales family refuses to tear down a child's cubby house erected in their backyard without council permission.
Penalties of up to $1.1 million - plus a further daily fine of $110,000 - await the family if they don't agree to demolish the structure.
The cubby, which measures just 1.5m by 1.5m, was deemed a "fire risk" by Wollongong City Council, which wants it removed by January 5.
Earlier this year, Sonja Keller and husband Andrew Bergmann used leftover building supplies to build the cubby for their son, Yaan, 9, behind their home at Tumbling Waters Resort in Stanwell Tops.
They returned from holidays before Christmas to find mail telling them to remove the cubby as it posed a bushfire threat and they did not have "development consent".
"Council has become aware that a cubby house has been erected within the premises adjacent to a dwelling; within a bushfire prone and environmentally sensitive area, without development consent," the council wrote.
"Failure to comply with the order is an offence under section 125 of the (Environmental Planning and Assessment) Act. The maximum penalty for that offence is $1,100,000.00 and a further daily penalty of $110,000.00.
"If the order is not complied with, Council may give effect to the order and recover the costs of doing so from you."
Mrs Keller said council staff first inspected the cubby house earlier this month.
"Three people from the council came to inspect some of the work we had done at the resort," he said.
"I thought they were joking when they said they needed to look at the cubby house."
She said the cubby was barely visible from the street and no more of a fire risk than other garden furniture.
"This decision is a joke. It's ridiculous to say it's in a fire-sensitive area," she said.
"The garden shed is in a fire-sensitive area. The pergola is in a fire-sensitive area. The whole house is in a fire-sensitive area."
Mrs Keller said she would try to fight the decision, but they could not afford to pay the whopping fines.
"The council should be encouraging people to spend time with their families, especially this time of year," she said.
"My little boy got $50 for Christmas and asked if that was enough to fight council."


Read more: Council's $1.1m fine threat over 1.5m kids' cubby | News.com.au

See This is why everyone hates the council,

[TA 91 WA]

$1.1 million dollar fine?

Yeah nah I'll pass on that.

[BookMe]

My girlfriend just got a pool put in her backyard. Her backyard boundary is bushland and she had to get a bush fire report. The report was for the council to determine whether the pool was a fire threat. A pool...

[calais24/7]

when i read the first part, i was expecting a 15m high tree house that was dangerous as, that is pathetic, 1.5m is ridiclous. Just go to aca, they will figure it out

[Lumps of cheese]

That's local goverments for you

[Aussie Revhead]

this reminds me of a aca story Councils gone crazy

[hi_ryder]

thats like this guy on the back block behind who's trying to knock down and build a new house. council wont pre-approve or give any direction or advice to any architectural plans. he has to pay thousands and thousands submitting and getting knocked back untill they like what they see (heritage listed). between architects fees and council fees just to get it down on paper and approved will cost over $50,000.

[jules]

some of these councils are just infested with cretins. i have a builder friend who constructed a site office shed. the council inspectors hate him (to be fair, it's a bit of both ways), so they deemed it a permanent structure and ordered it be dismantled. i mean, how do you go home and sleep at night after abusing the authority invested in you by rate payers to provide a service to them, instead to settle personal scores?

i work for the govt but i'd like to think i provide value for money to tax payers (at least, as much as within my ability).

[Stressball]

Everyone who says this reminds them/belongs on ACA? That's coz it already was some time in the last couple of days. The neighbour seems like a douche, but meh. Based on the looks of the property that family owns, they wouldn't have any difficulty building the kid a treehouse that wouldn't be torn down by the council. Not exactly fair, but still not unattainable for them.

[87RB30VL]

Just move it/take it down, and get council approval, and put it up again? It looks like you could pick it up and move it. Seriously, is it worth fighting over? If that was me, I would knock it down, and get approval, and rebuild it because I couldn't be f-cked stuffing around with the council.

"My little boy got $50 for Christmas and asked if that was enough to fight council."

This gives me the shits. Number 1, they probably never even said that, and number 2, who cares?

[Julie]

meh... if you are stupid enough to not suss out the rules before building anything on your property then you are a fool. Thats the first thing we did before we even thought to put up a cubby, they should have had the sense to check out what the rules were before they built it and got the kids all disappointed. They need to take responsibility for their actions and quit whinging and pull it down and seek approval they need and get on with it and hopefully learn their lesson for next time.

[Decicrate]

What a joke, its a cubby house ffs. 1.5 x 1.5. I could understand if the thing was massive.

How can a cubby house of that size be a fire risk??
Has it got power connected, a gas stove or a fire place???????


This is just another case of power tripping wankers going to far.

Just goes to show that even though you own the land and the land deed is in your name, you have little control over what you can do on your own property.

How long is it going to be before you need to have approval for those plastic cubby houses, or the swing set or maybe even the hills hoist???

[Munz]

isn't it funny the neighbour that keeps complaining never had a tree house as a kid - jealousy maybe

[Decicrate]

Well it seems that a bit of common sense may prevail here. For those who may not know what common sense is, read here Common sense - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Cubby house standing, despite fine threat - Local News - News - General - Illawarra Mercury

I love this bit "The Wollongong council spokeswoman said small structures such as cubby houses didn't normally require consent.

"However, this is a commercial premises in an area of high environmental sensitivity and bushfire risk," she said.

The council sent three officers to inspect the structure after it received a complaint last month."

It seems that you DON'T need a DA for a cubby house at all in the Wollongong area.

Why does it take 3 council officers to inspect a cubby house.???? Is it such a big development that one officer could not handle the inspection???

This is one of the reasons why rates are always going up and up. 3 people to do the job of one. Good to see peoples hard earned money being spent wisely.

[Pickled]

This sounds like a grade A first world problem..

[walesy]

what happened to the days where people wernt so dam politically correct, really annoys me that they cause all this drama over a cubby house on your own property, hell! when i was a kid we used to go down the bush and build our own cubby houses, and make bike jumps,

theres no way the councils would let stuff like that stay without them destroying them because theyre afraid of getting sued if someone was hurt... its no wonder kids these days never play out doors anymore