During late August 2020, Mareeba Shire Council accused long term hangar owner, Richard Rudd of illegally residing in his hangar. Richard wrote to Council solicitors saying that he had not resided there since June 2016 and lived off-field.
Council launched a 2 week investigation by compliance officers, who found nothing -
NO residing.
Council upped the stakes and on 6th December 2020, issued five Form 7 Non compliance Notices on the Hangar lease.
These were:
- Residing [same as original notice];
- Storage of a car;
- Maintenance of aircraft;
- Plumbing non compliance [Undertaken and signed of in August 2016];
- Plumbing non compliance [Signed off in December 2020]
To monitor, Council installed a covert camera during November 2020 to monitor Richard's compliance -
NOTHING FOUND
The final inspection on 19th January 2021, resulted in non-compliance on items 1 and 3. Richard was locked out on the morning of 20th January 2021.
A short time later, after having been denied supervised access, Council wrote to Richard saying he had abandoned the hangar and goods contained therein were considered ABANDONED.
This was not a QCAT matter as there was no originating legal process, just an administrative form use.
Hence an application to the QLD Supreme Court, but the solicitors would not follow the express directions, so they were sacked.
Richard was now on his own against a QC from Council. He elicited help from a
"McKenzie Friend"
An offer was made for a value of $100K to compensate for legal costs $34K, value of lease $600K, damage to aircraft $100K and further damages to health.
This was rightly rejected.
By August 6th 2021, the Supreme Court hearing started, with Richard Rudd and his McKenzie friend doing battle against the Council QC over two days.
Judgement by Judge Henry is for Richard Rudd.
ORDER of 11th August 2021 in Cairns Supreme Court
1. The respondent will forthwith restore possession of the leased premises known as Lease N on SP171528 at Mareeba Airport, along with the keys thereto, to the applicant as the lessee of the premises.
2. The respondent will pay the applicant’s costs of the application to be assessed on the standard basis if not agreed.
Further reading:
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