The backyard granny flat bungle 'tearing' one family apart
A thousand days. That's how long Paul's been battling his council after it booted his disabled son out of his granny flat.
The flat was built without council approval but Paul didn't build it - that was the previous owner Paul bought the property from 13 years earlier.
Now Paul and his son are paying the price.
A thousand days. That's how long Paul's been battling his council after it booted his disabled son out of his granny flat. A Current Affair
He said the red tape bungle has "torn his family apart".
Paul bought the house in Sydney's Earlwood because the granny flat was ideal for his disabled adult son Lewis.
"We just knew that that was going to be perfect for him, that it would give him the independence that he needed," he said.
But 13 years later, Canterbury-Bankstown Council dropped the mother of all bombs on his granny flat.
"It turned out that in 2007 when we purchased the property, it hadn't been signed off," he said
The granny flat was built by the previous owner years earlier but Paul and his conveyancer didn't clock it wasn't compliant.
Paul bought the house in Sydney's Earlwood because the granny flat was ideal for his disabled adult son Lewis. A Current Affair
Paul says he's spent $30k trying to navigate a development application minefield to get the granny flat approved.
"Nobody acted for a thousand days," he claimed, although the council disputes this.
In late 2020 council issued Paul a cease to occupy notice for the granny flat.
Lewis is intellectually impaired and suffers from schizophrenia.
He told A Current Affair he was "uncomfortable," when people from the council came over.
The flat was built without council approval but Paul didn't build it - that was the previous owner Paul bought the property from 13 years earlier. A Current Affair
Lewis hasn't just moved out of the granny flat, he's moved countries
As the DA drama dragged on, in 2023 Paul made the difficult decision to send his son to live at his sister's home in New Zealand.
"That's pretty hard," he says.
But Paul's hands aren't entirely clean in this granny flat fiasco.
The DA stand-off began when Paul built a carport without council approval.
A thousand days. That's how long Paul's been battling his council after it booted his disabled son out of his granny flat. A Current Affair
"Look, in hindsight, yes, you know, I wish I hadn't," he says.
Council says it varied planning controls to approve DAs for both Paul's granny flat and carport.
But Paul says there are conditions.
He has to make the carport taller to match the one next door.
The granny flat was built by the previous owner years earlier but Paul and his conveyancer didn't clock it wasn't compliant. A Current Affair
However Paul says he can't just do what the council says and bring his son home
"Lewis's mental condition has deteriorated to a point where we're not sure that we will ever be able to bring him back home. So in that sense the urgency has gone out of that equation regrettably, the damage has been done'," he says.
We’d love to hear from you
