When the Black Summer bushfires tore through the Bega Valley on the NSW south coast in late 2019, Manu Bohn, 30, was faced with the reality of becoming homeless. While he was able to save the property he was temporarily staying in, he was left scrambling to find a new place to live after a breakup.
“[The region] became quite famous after the fires … the devastation it left after it went through was huge,” Manu told The Feed.
Having moved to Australia from Brazil in 2018, Manu said he was priced out of the property market — and resorted to building a tiny home atop a caravan on a friend’s property as a last-ditch option two years ago.
But he and the property owner did not seek council permission or apply for a development approval for the dwelling, though he says he did build it “based on state legislation”.
The council recently sent him a draft order stating the tiny home needs to be removed or demolished to abide by NSW Environmental Planning legislation – failure to do so could trigger legal proceedings with potential for a court-imposed fine of $1 million maximum. Manu says it would make him homeless.
“For someone living [in] a tiny house and not being able to afford a home, to get this letter where you have to pay a million dollars … it just seems to be so outrageous and not very understanding,” he said.
Turning to tiny homes as a last resort
Tiny houses are compact, mobile homes built on wheels or trailers, which allow them to be easily relocated. They’re about the size of a shipping container — only slightly taller.
In Australia, tiny homes have been available for roughly the past 15 years, costing anywhere between $20,000 to $200,000. Some are marketed as vacation homes and can be found on short-term rental platforms like Airbnb.
Manu did not complete a development application with Bega Valley Shire before he constructed his tiny home. Source: Supplied
For some, they have become an affordable option for housing.
Manu said he built his tiny house with his new partner “as a place for us that was affordable so we were able to stay in the area where we’ve been living”.
“Tiny houses would be basically the only affordable way of living to us, as we don’t own land and would rely on staying in someone else’s property,” he said.
He said that because the house was on wheels, it did not require approval.
“Our understanding was and still is that our tiny house built on wheels is considered a mobile dwelling under NSW legislation, which doesn’t require [a DA], and allows us to move it to maybe our own future land,” he said.
Bega Valley Shire Council told The Feed it can’t discuss individual cases but explained that tiny homes in NSW aren’t specifically defined and may be classified as dwellings, granny flats, or movable homes, depending on their use and construction.
“In NSW, a land use approval is required in most cases to give consent to use the land as a dwelling,” the council’s director of community, environment and planning, Emily Harrison said in a statement.
Harrison said the $1 million fine can only be imposed by the NSW Land and Environment Court.
The council does allow secondary dwellings and states on its website it is “typically supportive” of granny flats and small dwellings for housing as long as it complies with planning, building, health and safety requirements.
Manu is onboard with the laws, but believes he is justified in having his tiny home on private property.
Manu said he built his tiny home believing it was the only affordable way of living without having to leave Bega Valley. Source: Supplied
Getting approval for tiny homes in Australia depends on whether they’re seen as buildings (like cabins) or vehicles (like caravans), since each has different rules. Tiny homes on wheels can sometimes bypass building approvals. But living in them full-time isn’t always straightforward — it depends on the local council.
“It just feels like the council here is treating us as [if] we are bringing a problem to them — when we are actually bringing a solution.”
Old laws, new homes
Policies around tiny homes vary across councils — but regardless, many of them need to be updated, according to emeritus professor Paul Burton, a former town planner at Griffith University who has been researching tiny houses for eight years.
“Often those policies were devised 10, 20, 30 years ago when the housing situation was nowhere near as bad as it is now,” Burton told The Feed.
“We are now in a housing crisis — and the crisis is manifesting itself in a lot more people having absolutely no choice but to live in vehicles or tents. It is not a lifestyle choice. There is no alternative.”
This draft order letter informing Manu was to demolish or remove his tiny home was sent by the Bega Valley council. Source: Supplied
Burton believes it’s understandable for councils to evict tiny homes who may be on public land — but questioned the local council’s priorities as social housing waitlists can be up to five years.
“If you are looking at somebody living in a tiny home on a pretty large rural block, I would have to say, well, what harm is being done?”
“Some people would argue … if we turn a blind eye to one the next moment there’ll be 50 of them, and then we’ve got a caravan park, and that’s a different thing.”
He said the focus should be on easing the housing crisis and providing alternative housing solutions for people sleeping rough.
“People are sleeping in vehicles and tents, not because they’re on holiday, but because that’s the only opportunity available to them, they have no choice but to live in a van or a tent because they can’t afford to buy anywhere,” he said.
Burton believes there is scope for councils to review attitudes towards tiny homes to reflect the housing crisis. Shellharbour City Council in NSW and Surf Coast Shire in Victoria are currently trialling tiny houses to be lived in without the need of a development application.
“If the normal market isn’t providing, then people will end up living in tents and caravans and your problem of where they are going to be and having to move them on gets bigger and bigger,” he said.
“It’s pushing the problem around. It’s not solving it.”
Manu said without his home, he would become “one of the homeless numbers”.
“Everything that I have at the moment, I built myself … but if that’s taken out of me, basically I’m just left with the tiny house — and that means according to the letter — that I can’t even park it anywhere. So it means I don’t have a place to stay.”
Manu wants to see all levels of government allow tiny home ownership on private property.
“This is the time for the council to start thinking about a change,” he said.
“[It’ll] make a huge difference in the way that people can afford … live and just stay in a healthy state of mind. It’ll make such a big difference.”
