Central Coast man banned from living in caravan with portaloo

A Central Coast man who bought a vacant plot of land has been banned from living on a block of land with a portaloo that emptied into the drain on the street.

A man who bought a block of land between family homes and instead of building a house lived in a caravan and used a portaloo as his toilet became the neighbour from smelly hell.

Hervinder Pal Singh Bhandari’s neighbours were exposed to the stink of an open sewer pipe running from his portable toilet straight into the drain on their quiet cul-de-sac in Wyoming on the Central Coast.

Central Coast Council took Mr Bhandari to the NSW Land and Environment Court, claiming his living situation was illegal.

The caravan and the offending portaloo. Picture: David Swift

Justice Tim Moore agreed and on October 23 banned Mr Bhandari from living in the caravan, using the portable toilet on the site and ordered that he clean up the overgrown plot of land.

Property records show Bhandari bought the empty block on Roselands Ave, $135,000 in April 2014.

Real estate advertisement at the time said the vacant land would “make a great location for the family‘s new home or a first homebuyer … building a new home.”

Instead, the Court heard. in the years after his purchase, Bhandari put a caravan on the grass and also installed a portable toilet. He had a pipe emptying sewerage straight from his toilet into the drain on the street

The living set-up on the block of land in Wyoming. Picture: David Swift

The Council submitted to court it was an “entirely inappropriate use of the present portable toilet” which resulted in “the discharge of untreated effluent from that facility into the gutters in the area.”

A neighbour kept a diary of Bhandari’s activities and Justice Moore told the court “It is appropriate to note that the extent of that occupation was such that it did not fall within the bounds of that which was permitted without the approval of the Council.”

Mr Bhandari has left Australia for India and told the court he was not interested in taking part in the case,