Time Limited Consent – NSW Coastal Alliance (NCA) says “don’t sign your property rights away”
The NCA has been advised of several cases of council’s trying to force property owners into agreeing to “time limited consent” before they can develop their coastal properties. In one case it is reported that a council is trying to apply this condition retrospectively.
For the uninitiated, “time limited consent” is a virtual lease on your own freehold property where you agree to accept a development approval that requires you to demolish and clear the site after a fixed period of time. The order might be activated when it is flooded or inundated a set number of times, or a sea level rise trigger point is reached. As you can imagine, a property with an impediment of this nature on the title is a depreciating asset from the day it is developed, until it becomes worthless and a demolition liability towards the end of the consent period.
The NCA Regional Coordinator Ian Hitchcock advises anyone being forced to consider a “time limited consent” order to sign nothing and seek legal advice.
Ian can be contacted through the NCA web site.
NSW Coastal Alliance
November 2017
