Fraud!

Brief Background: Award winning architect Maria Gigney designed the development at 157-161 Bathurst Street and created an award winning stuff-up. She submitted plans which where knocked back by Council Planning, and on the 4th October 2005 resubmitted an Amendment where Unit 1 was reduced in height by 1 metre but forgot to update the measurements. These plans were approved by Council! In other words, the plans were redesigned, the building was lowered, but the actual numbers stayed the same! So measuring Unit 1, everything was out by 1 metre! 

Now consider that this Development broke 10 planning laws to get through Council Planning in 2005. Even then it was knocked back by the Aldermen. The system now requires that Council needs to come up with a list of reasons why the Development was rejected. They list their reasons why the Development was failed, leaving technical "loopholes" which were seized by lawyers at the Tribunal were it was ultimately passed. Now 5 years later it is being built and now another 10 or more  planning laws are now being broken again!

Hobart City Council pass this flawed plan and Developer Mehrab-Khani along with his contracted Engineer Chris Potter decide to run with this, making Unit 1 12% too high, reducing our light and privacy in the process, lining up their bedroom window so we can see into it and they into our bedroom door and making it a fire hazard because of lack of setback.

And to disguise the height they decide to delete the kitchen wall and glass ceiling (which was supposed to be the same height as the existing boundary fence!) in the process making the whole top floor even closer to us!

Now we have the contracted Building Surveyor for this job, Peter Ray, who represents one of the biggest Building Survey companies in the country, Pitt + Sherry, rubber stamping the fraudulent measurements made to hide the actual height of the building! Let me say this again -- Potter and Ray decide to hide the incorrect measurement of Unit 1 by measuring the height of the building at the wrong point, and giving this to Council!

To add insult to injury, Peter Ray and Chris Potter are using Maria Gigney's drawings to show the alterations they are making to the building to further hide the height (deleting kitchen wall and glass ceiling, more later), when the building bears no resemblance to the plans! Just look at where the balcony is on the plans! This is a farce and and a fraud on a grand scale.

Council can't figure any of this out. This isn't rocket science, so I decide the measure the building in 4 different ways.

I get a tape measure and physically measure the height:

The building measures 4890mm by my measurement. But here's the beautiful thing: Chris Potter and Peter Ray know there is a height problem and measure it at the wrong point! I know this because I replicated their measurements. I get their exact measurement of 5150mm by measuring on the other lower side of the existing wall, contrary to Gigney's reference measurements:

Then I measure from ground level determined by the architect, putting tape at my building. Lo and behold, I get a measurement of 4930mm using this method.

Physically measuring everything, it is obvious that 5300mm on Gigney's plans should be 4300mm because 5300mm goes to the top of my balcony, making unit 1 the same height!
Ditto with the boundary fence, it's 1700mm NOT 2700mm.

So the actual building should be built to 4300mm by the architects plans, but it is built 700-850mm too high, and the old 5300mm plans are being used.

So Peter Ray and Chris Potter measure it at the wrong side of the existing wall reporting a height which is 5150mm! Looking at my photo of where 5150 is on my balcony, it is so high it isn't even in the photo. But they can now claim that the building is lower then approved, and the reason they want a measurement closer to 5300mm like 5150mm is that the building would stand out like a sore thumb if they built it to full height as dictated by the old 5300mm plans!

If they lodged a measurement of 4890mm like I got it would show there is a discrepancy. What they want is something close to 5300mm to make it look like the building is being built to approved plans. In fact the building was supposed to be reduced in height by 1 metre--that is what was approved!

Summary-- The Developer can now claim the building is shorter than the approved 5300mm when it fact the amendment was for 4300mm and they are way over that. So in fact they have built to the wrong plan, building 12% higher than allowed in a heritage area. This means that any 8 story building in Hobart could have an extra floor added with no-one being the wiser!

Look at Potters fraudulent representation of the windows. Notice the balcony is the same height as the existing brick wall on the plans but is 850mm over that in practice!

They decide to hide the height discrepancy further by deleting the kitchen wall and glass ceiling, bringing the whole top floor of the building closer to us! In emails I have Peter Ray denies this. I have double checked with a Council Planner on Wed 20th Oct and Peter Ray is wrong -- he is either clueless or he is a liar. More on this later.

Looking at Gigneys plans, the building of Unit 1 is totally different.
Gigney notes:

It is nothing like this, the balcony towers up at over 850mm! See picture below.

So our balcony floor is upposed to be 1.1 metres higher than unit 1's balcony as per Gigney's plans. Here is the actual case:

So not one of these measurements are anything near what they should be. The devious nature of the deletion of the kitchen wall and glass ceiling to hide the height discrepancy and also move the whole top floor of the building closer to us is worth another post.

But what stands out here is that a Building Surveyor working for one of the biggest companies in this country, Pitt + Sherry, as well as a contract Engineer paid for by Mehrab-Khani not only built a building out of specifications, they have actively sought to hide this fact! If this is not fraud, I don't know what is.

An extra "benefit" to the building being too high is that now we look directly into the bedroom window of Unit 1 and they can see our bedroom door. Gigney had the window lowered to protect privacy, but these clowns have now raised the entire building including the window. Privacy, what's that? Fire hazard, what's that? In fact now that the building is higher and closer, let's build a deck to directly look into our bathroom, kitchen and backyard. And that's what was attempted, believe it or not.

And that is the story of the next post. That and the bedroom window, our reduced light and privacy.This is going to a Tribunal on 5th Nov. Lets see what happens. More to follow.

By the way, where is Hobart City Council on this? I received a letter on Monday 18th Oct -- Council had a surveyor check it and the height was correct! Unbelievable. He could only be comparing the height he got with the old plans using the wrong 5300mm numbers.

The building will appear to be lower than required if 5300mm reference is used as per old plans, and is taller than specified if the 4300mm reference is used as per the amendment on 4th Oct 2005. This is the current plan that is being used, so 4300mm is the basis of comparison!

None of this is rocket science. Put a tape measure up along a one story building and see what happens! A 12% error in height means that any 8 floor building in Hobart could have an extra floor added and no-one would be wiser! They were building pyramids 3000 years ago with more accuracy than what they are doing here.

But now we have a situation were laypeople need to prove a case against a "professional" (and I use that term lightly.)