ChrisOnBali
Member
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2026
- Messages
- 52
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.
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.
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