Is your property heritage listed? If not, should it be? Or, if it is, do you know your requirements in relation to building and developing the property? The Australian Heritage Directory has the following advice.
There are three basic heritage lists - Commonwealth, State and Territory. Local councils and even shires also have their own lists and or guidelines. Some lists are statutory (created by law) and others are non-statutory such as those prepared by professional or volunteer associations.
Because there are several different types of heritage lists, the best way to find out if your property is listed is to either:
- search for the place on the Australian Heritage Places Inventory, or
- contact your State or Territory heritage agency
Keep in mind that some local councils have heritage lists and some even have heritage advisory officers that can help.
If you need formal advice about whether a property is listed, you will need to write to the heritage agency in your State or Territory, your local council and the Australian Heritage Commission. Likewise, if you know a place that should be listed, you may need to check out the different types of lists to see which is the appropriate one - state or territory listings usually provide the most protection for places.
The costs in maintaining, repairing, adapting or upgrading a heritage listed building vary depending on the nature of the building and its use.
The developers of the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney claim that their repair and maintenance costs are similar to the costs of repairing and maintaining contemporary shopping centres, but much cheaper over a long time span because, as a heritage building, the QVB is constructed of more durable low maintenance fabric. In addition they do not need to undertake capital works upgrades to keep the shopping centre looking 'new'. Life cycle costs are therefore cheaper.
The most expensive aspect of repairing and reusing a heritage building would depend on whether there is a maintenance backlog that needs to be overcome. Once a heritage building is brought back to near original finish, it should be no more expensive to maintain than other buildings. An important aspect is keeping to a maintenance program.
If backlog maintenance is required, a cost factor would be the availability of specialist trades to repair traditional fabric such as masonry, metal and plaster work. These additional costs can be ameliorated over a longer time span than that applying to structures built from lighter, less durable materials.
When dealing with structural and rising damp problems affecting heritage places and buildings, you're best to seek the opinion of professional heritage consultants - in particular a heritage architect might be the best person.
The most effective way to design alterations of a building to bring it to a contemporary standard while retaining heritage values is to seek professional and technical advice from heritage advisers, heritage agencies and/or heritage professionals.
Once the heritage values of a building are known and the significance of a place or building has been clearly reported, a range of design alternatives can be developed and considered that enhance and retain heritage values, or have only a minimal adverse effect on those important values.
Proposals that require major alterations and additions to significant fabric and change or remove the important heritage values should be avoided. In such circumstances it may be necessary to consider whether the proposed adaptations and use are suitable, or whether another more sympathetic use would be more appropriate. The preparation of a conservation plan would assist owners to determine the extent of adaptation that would be appropriate.
