Time for an update. Some progress, and some body corporate issues.
Let's start with the issues:
As we're not changing anything outside the unit, and not running any new pipes in or out, we weren't even sure we needed permission, but being good residents we asked the head of the body corporate.
He confirmed, they have no problem what we do on the inside of our section. Then with the usual builders delays, we only really got the work started in November. We have a new body corporate in place, and they somehow took offense to us doing the work and told our builder to stop. They phoned the wife to see if she had permission and she said yes. Then they phoned the former head of the body corporate who said he never gave permission. Sadly for them we have the email granting permission, and this was duly sent.
After that, for a reason I just can't figure out, they sent armed guards to the builder, and then to my wife's place of work threatening her to stop the work. My wife was very shaken and near tears throughout the day, and hugely embarrassed as she is a hair salon owner, and the place was full of customers.
We did go see the woman from the body corporate and she still says that we have to stop the (paid for) work, though she did offer her apology for sending the armed guards.
The next day I called the managing agents and spoke to their lawyer. As we rightly assumed in the beginning, we never required their permission to do any work on the inside of the apartment, but being able to live there is a separate issue. From my understanding of the law, there are three ways to class a section of a property. One is your section, which is habitable, the other is parking, and the third is a store room. This piece wasn't mentioned on the plans, so it's a bit of a gray area. The room does meet all the requirements for a habitable space, it has an entrance, an escape option, the roof is over 7 foot high, and the window meets the required minimum size. It also had plumbing. My guess is that the previous owner intended it to be a maids room or something to that effect.
On a side note, we found out that the body corporate incorrectly allocated two parking bays in our exclusive use area to other units. On top of that they charged them rent for them! We'll try use this in our favour should we need to argue about us living there.
And now on to the happier side, the updated photos. We're nearly done, just the finishing on the plumbing, electrical and glass work.
The kitchen:
Bathroom to be completed, but here you can see the floor and the window. Doesn't seem to be a view for a store room if you ask me:
sink and counter top:
Tiles, round is inside bathroom, square in kitchen:
Bathroom floor tiles:
