Doing DIY at step-parent's house, is that 'working' ?

[ChrisOnBali]

The family home of my local wife has a lot of work needed doing. I do bits of DIY here and there, putting up shelves and sorting out lighting and that sort of minor electrical/mechanical stuff, but there are three adjacent rooms in one end of the place that are unused because the tiled roof leaks (though seems pretty sound in general) and the suspended ceiling below is sodden through and has variously caved in/might do at any moment.

Her folks have sooooo much long-term junk... err, precious stuff packed away in boxes and plastic crates in bedrooms and really need some extra storage space.

I quite fancy taking it on as a hobby project. With a local hired hand to do the scary part, getting up on the roof to sort the broken tiles and as an occasional second pair of hands when I needed more than just my two to rebuild the suspended ceiling I could probably make a pretty decent job of it, perhaps take on one first, move along to the next and maybe get all three done over the next year or two.

My wife warned me that I might get myself in trouble, since arguably I'd be depriving local people of a job and as I understand it, not taking employment away from a local who could do it is the essence of the need for a work permit.

I'm on a retirement visa and obviously keen to not go anywhere near anything that might be seen as paid work or anything that might cause problems along those lines.

I'd be buying the materials myself and not be paid anything for my time and in the end it's the family home, not somebody else's villa or something, so it would seem to me to be very distinct from employment.

Also, if it wasn't me doing it, there wouldn't be a job to do and so deprive somebody else of doing, it's more something that I'd enjoy doing (and would earn some brownie points !)

Am I / is she being too cautious / worrying unnecessarily ? - I mean, who would report me (maybe the hired hand, I suppose) and would it strictly be seen as breaking the terms of my visa anyway ?

A few years back I was considering offering free weekly computer literacy / programming classes to local kids but on looking into it, was warned that I was very likely to get myself in trouble doing that, even if I supplied the equipment and the local school offered me the room to do it in for nothing. If one of the parents or staff took umbrage with me for some reason and they had a cousin who worked for imigrasi... as everyone seems to.. etc. etc. - you can see how it might go badly for me. So I'm a bit fore-warned / wary with this sort of thing.

 

[Balifrog]

Stay out of it...
Anyway, whatever you "fix", in one year it will be in the same state due to carelessness....

Simply enjoy your retirement with a Bintang in the hand.

 

[ChrisOnBali]

Hmm, thanks.... but skulking in my little carpentry workshop and doing hobby projects is mainly how I enjoy my retirement, and I don't drink much beer these days; this seems like a satisfying project to take on and I've not been asked to do it or being cajoled into it, it's my idea.

I know that 'maintenance' here means "wait until it collapses, then bodge it up in some faintly hilarious and ill-conceived way" but I won't be 'fix'ing it, I'll be doing a proper non-bodge replace the whole thing job with enough wood treatment and support to form a paddling pool up there next rainy season if the tiles still leak.

So... I'm looking for informed opinion about the work/visa side of it, not whether other people would fancy taking on the project themselves

 

[jstar]

Am I / is she being too cautious / worrying unnecessarily ?

Yes.

Just don’t start telling people you’re fixing someone else’s house. Since you’re on a spouse sponsored stay permit and it’s her family dwelling, I don’t see any problem, it’s not even a grey area. You just help them out (without pay).

Those programming classes would be more risky since it does look like a job (where you would be paid for) and it is very visible.

 

[ChrisOnBali]

Yes.

Just don’t start telling people you’re fixing someone else’s house. Since you’re on a spouse sponsored stay permit and it’s her family dwelling, I don’t see any problem, it’s not even a grey area. You just help them out (without pay).

Those programming classes would be more risky since it does look like a job (where you would be paid for) and it is very visible.

Thanks, that's what I was thinking; especially with it essentially being my family home.

It'd have been nice to do the free IT classes thing, shame, but too easy for it to go horribly wrong.

As far as I can tell from the school opposite, the kids mainly learn how to listen to people barking short sentences on a gratingly loud PA system and repeating what was said to them, which doesn't seem to be an ideal preparation a productive and satisfying career.

We can see into some of the classrooms from here and they're almost never actually sitting down at desks doing anything one might mistake for learning. Most of the time that they're not running around shouting they're congregated in the playground to be screeched at.