Builder's epic $740k council fine for daughter's cubby house
Keith Richardson has been crafting cubbies since childhood, which sparked his career as owner and managing director of Queensland-based Imagine Kit Homes. 'That is how I started way back when,' he said, 'all I wanted to do was build what we called huts at the time, we didn't call them cubby houses'.
So when he had his own children, it was a no brainer that they would have the most amazing cubby he could construct – in this case a double-decker design built when his daughter, Sophie, was two.
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It was more than just a play space, he said. 'It was over engineered, and kind of a quirky little design. I made sure I had all these design specific requirements like cantilevered balconies, hardwood flooring and raked ceilings, all these things that I knew looked good on houses.'
'I wanted to make it a special sort of cubby house, and as we all know, a cubby house built on the ground isn't much fun, so that's why I put it up, not too high though.'
But despite the property backing onto a main road and the cubby house blending into the tree line, a neighbour complained to the council. 'You got to have a pretty dark heart to do that,' the builder said, puzzled by his neighbour's complaint.
An epic bureaucratic challenge began over the Upper Coomera cubby house, with the tiniest of houses going through a rigorous approval process akin to normal houses of grown-ups.
'I employ five designers and architects, so I put plans into council to get approval. I had to get engineers to inspect it. It was over engineered and I had to get consent. I did all that!'
He's even built a granny flat on the property since which did not raise as many issues as the cubby house has with council.
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Now, after eight years of peace, he has another fight looming with much more dire consequences that could put him out of pocket to the tune of $740,000 in fines.
A second neighbour has complained about the cubby house – claiming it was an 'eyesore' and council has acted, again, over its removal.
Mr Richardson said 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder. My 10-year-old thinks it's the best thing she's ever seen. The fact that this person thinks that is their opinion, but it's then made the council come around, do the inspections, and send this big eight page letter basically saying that there's a $740,000 fine if I don't become compliant.'
'I think it's the only one in Australia that has ever had council approval. They said we can't find the approval you did originally and I said well surely if you look in the cubby house approvals file, there's only one property in there, it'll be mine.'
Mr Richardson told The Courier-Mail 'I could easily fight this' but he's over it all now.
'I don't want to upset them, because I need the council, but I just think seriously isn't there a cat stuck in a tree or something that they've got to go and save? There's bigger things than cubby houses to worry about. I just can't be bothered fighting with them.'
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Mr Richardson took to Facebook Marketplace, offering the cubby house up for free to a good home, with one condition being that in removing it they don't damage a pizza oven he built near it.
'When I first heard (about the council demand), I thought that was so unfair and but now I just want to give it away to someone. I just want someone to literally chop the four posts, lift it up with a crane, put it on the back of a truck, and take it wherever they want.'
'People have asked what's your best price? I'm like, well, it can't get any better than free.'
'It's cost me a lot of money to build it, get it engineered and everything. It's more about making sure it goes to a good family and they enjoy it.'
'I've now got a young family that live on South Straddie that have contacted me saying yes, we love it, we want it.'
Mr Richardson. who has the property with the double decker cubby house rented out, said his tenants adored it. 'I hope I don't have to drop the rent because it's going'.
'I had to admit, now that the trees behind it have gone, it does stick out a bit. It's just that I built this for my children, and it's got emotional value.'
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