Tamworth Regional Council sells hidden laneway for $60,000

For years, the Victorian-era brick homes on Darling Street in Tamworth had access to a narrow and unnamed laneway off Dowell Avenue and were given permission to build carports and even lay a tarred driveway.

Yet Tamworth Regional Council sold it to the highest bidder – a neighbouring property owner on 15 Dowell Avenue.

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It is believed the owner hopes to push their existing block’s boundary to build units.

Affected property owner Mitchell Single, who attended the night-time auction in early October, said it was a two-horse race between himself and the neighbouring property owner.

Mr Single stopped bidding on the approximately 100-square-metre block of land after $59,000 because, he said, it simply wasn’t worth it.

He said the successful buyers told him they would have bought it “no matter what” because of their future plans to build an apartment development on their potentially bigger block of land.

“I wanted to buy it as an access point for all five of us. No one would have lost out if I bought it,” Mr Single said.

“It is frustrating, the fact that everyone has bought their home and built carports and then all of a sudden you don’t have a driveway any more.

“You’ve lost a space to put a car in. No one is going to want to buy a house without a garage. It’s just a storage area now which you can’t drive into.”

A potential buyer, who wished to remain anonymous, withdrew their bid on 65 Darling St, which was on sale for $459,000, after they found out the property no longer had rear laneway access.

“I was really keen on the property. When I walked into the property it felt like home,” the buyer said.

“Everyone said we could offer to pay a small fee a year to keep the laneway, so it would be like renting again, which is what I’m trying to get out of.”

The potential buyer, who recently bought a new car, said “in a country town it’s a bit ridiculous” to be left without a driveway or garage.

“There’s not many houses in town without a car spot and it devalues the property, too.”

Another affected property owner, who also wished to remain anonymous, said they were “annoyed, more than anything” because they were not notified by council of the sale.

“We would have liked to have known that it was for sale. We could have all probably chipped in and converted it into an access lane.”

The owner, who went to the Lands Board Office, discovered the title didn’t have “access lane” written on it. If it did, they said they would have been “home and hosed but we now don’t really have a leg to stand on”.

“Our only hope now is that the chap who bought it will let us use it but we fully understand he doesn’t have to.”

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