“Working with Nik has been highly rewarding for us,” said Leigh Buckton, General Manager (NSW & Adelaide) for Living Choice. “Nik is always straightforward, realistic, clear, concise and on time.”

Living Choice, a national retirement village company, bought a site with an existing development approval.

Council was arguing, however, that the approval had only a month left to run. That was putting Living Choice under pressure either:

1. to build something they didn’t want just to keep consent alive, or
2. face having to go through the whole development application process again (and possibly be knocked back).

We were able to show that council was misreading the legislation. In fact, the DA had 16 months left to run, more than enough time for Living Choice to proceed as planned.

When our reading of the legislation was put to the council, it conceded the point, meaning Living Choice didn’t have to go to the expense of building something on the site just to keep its development application alive.