Planning, approvals and compliance

44 terms in planning, approvals and compliance

Development application(DA)

A development application is the request for planning approval assessed on its merits by the local council, weighing the proposal against the planning controls and its impacts. It is the flexible, slower pathway compared with complying development, and other states have analogous full-assessment pathways. General information, not planning advice. DA vs CDC reference. See also: Complying development certificate.

Complying development certificate(CDC)

A complying development certificate is the NSW fast-track approval that combines planning and construction approval in one step when a proposal meets every pre-set standard. It is compliance-only rather than merit-based, faster when available, and unavailable the moment the design steps outside the standards. General information, not planning advice. DA vs CDC reference. See also: Development application.

Merit assessment

Merit assessment is the planning pathway in which the consent authority weighs a proposal’s merits and impacts against the controls, with discretion to approve, condition or refuse. It contrasts with compliance-only pathways such as complying development, where meeting the pre-set standards is the whole test. DA vs CDC reference.

Construction certificate(CC)

A construction certificate is the NSW approval that the construction drawings and specifications comply with the Building Code and the development consent, required before building work starts under a DA. Other states issue an equivalent building approval or permit under different names. General information, not planning advice. Building approvals reference. See also: Building approval.

Building approval(BA)

Building approval is the technical approval that proposed building work complies with the National Construction Code and relevant standards, issued before work starts. The name and process differ by state, construction certificate in NSW, building permit in Victoria and elsewhere, but the role in the pathway is the same. General information, not planning advice. Building approvals reference.

Occupation certificate(OC)

The occupation certificate is the final approval that lets a completed home be lawfully occupied, issued after the final inspections confirm the work matches the approvals. Handover, the final claim and several warranty clocks hang off it. Some states call it an occupancy permit. General information, not planning advice. Occupation certificate reference. See also: Occupancy permit, Practical completion.

Occupancy permit

An occupancy permit is the name several states, including Victoria and Western Australia, give the final approval to occupy a completed building, the equivalent of the NSW occupation certificate. The requirements to obtain it are set per state. General information, not planning advice. Occupation certificate reference. See also: Occupation certificate.

Private certifier

A private certifier, or accredited building surveyor, is the professional who can issue building approvals, conduct mandatory inspections and issue the occupation certificate as an alternative to the council. Who appoints the certifier, and what they may certify, is set per state. General information, not planning advice. Building approvals reference.

Mandatory inspections

Mandatory inspections, called critical stage inspections in some states, are the inspections legislation requires at set points of a build, each a hold point on the programme. The stages, the inspector and the consequences of a failed inspection are set per state, and the records flow through to the occupation certificate. General information; the stages and processes change. Mandatory inspections reference. See also: Hold point.

Dwelling approval

A dwelling approval is permission to proceed with building a home, the unit counted in the approvals statistics, not a finished home. The gap between approvals and completions is why approval counts describe intent while completions describe delivery. Approvals vs completions guide.

National Construction Code(NCC)

The National Construction Code is Australia’s uniform technical code for the design and construction of buildings, including the energy efficiency provisions residential work must meet. It sets the minimum, not a target, and state variations and referenced standards sit alongside it. General information, not compliance advice. BASIX and energy efficiency reference.

Building Sustainability Index(BASIX)

BASIX is the NSW Building Sustainability Index, the scheme under which new residential work in NSW must meet energy, water and thermal comfort commitments before approval. The commitments made in the BASIX certificate become obligations the builder must deliver on site. Thresholds and settings change, so confirm against the current scheme. General information, not compliance advice. BASIX and energy efficiency reference. See also: NatHERS.

Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme(NatHERS)

NatHERS is the national star-rating framework that models a home’s thermal performance from its design, one of the pathways for demonstrating compliance with the NCC energy efficiency requirements. Star-rating requirements change, so confirm against the current source. General information, not compliance advice. BASIX and energy efficiency reference. See also: National Construction Code.

Bushfire Attack Level(BAL)

A Bushfire Attack Level is the rating assessed at planning and design that grades a site’s bushfire exposure and flows into construction requirements under AS 3959. The higher the BAL, the more demanding and expensive the required construction, which is why the rating belongs in the feasibility, not the surprises list. General information, not compliance advice. Bushfire and BAL reference. See also: AS 3959.

AS 3959

AS 3959 is the Australian Standard for construction of buildings in bushfire-prone areas, mapping each Bushfire Attack Level to specific construction requirements. The standard and the state schemes that apply it change, so the current edition is the reference. General information, not compliance advice. Bushfire and BAL reference. See also: Bushfire Attack Level.

Easement

An easement is a registered right for someone other than the owner, commonly a utility or a neighbour, to use or access part of a property, such as for drainage or services. Easements live on the title rather than in the planning scheme, constrain siting and design, and building over or near one needs the relevant authority’s approval. General information, not legal advice. Easements and covenants reference. See also: Restrictive covenant.

Restrictive covenant

A restrictive covenant is a registered obligation on a property’s title that limits how it can be used or built on, such as minimum dwelling sizes or material requirements. Like easements, covenants surface in due diligence before design, and they bind regardless of what the planning scheme would otherwise allow. General information, not legal advice. Easements and covenants reference. See also: Easement.

Section 88B instrument(s 88B)

A section 88B instrument is the NSW document attached to a deposited plan that creates the easements, covenants and restrictions recorded on the titles in that plan. The instrument, not the title’s summary line, carries the actual terms, and other states have equivalent instruments in their land titles systems. General information, not legal advice. Easements and covenants reference.

Building permit

A building permit is the approval, used in Victoria and other states, that construction work complies with the building regulations and may start, the counterpart to the NSW construction certificate. It is issued by a building surveyor, and the process and name differ by jurisdiction. General information, not planning advice. Building approvals reference. See also: Construction certificate, Building surveyor.

Planning permit

A planning permit is the Victorian approval that a proposed use or development is acceptable under the planning scheme, the merit-assessment step that can precede a building permit. Its NSW analogue is development consent, and whether one is needed depends on the controls for the site. General information, not planning advice. DA vs CDC reference. See also: Building permit.

Building surveyor

A building surveyor is the professional who assesses whether building work complies with the National Construction Code and the approval, issues the building permit or construction certificate, and carries out or oversees the mandatory inspections. In some states the appointed surveyor is called the relevant building surveyor or the principal certifier. General information, not compliance advice. Building approvals reference. See also: Principal certifier.

Principal certifier

The principal certifier is the certifier appointed to oversee a building project, carry out the critical stage inspections and issue the occupation certificate, a role known in some states as the principal certifying authority. Who may be appointed and what they may certify is set per state. General information, not compliance advice. Building approvals reference. See also: Private certifier.

Exempt development

Exempt development is minor building work that meets set standards and needs no planning or construction approval at all, such as small structures within defined limits. It is the lightest pathway, available only while the work stays inside the standards, and the categories and limits are set per state. General information, not planning advice. DA vs CDC reference. See also: Complying development certificate.

Building classification

The building classification is the category the National Construction Code assigns a building by its use, which determines the technical requirements it must meet. A detached house or townhouse commonly falls in Class 1a and a private garage or shed in Class 10, and the current class definitions are set by the NCC. General information, not compliance advice. Building approvals reference. See also: National Construction Code.

Deemed-to-Satisfy(DtS)

Deemed-to-Satisfy is the prescriptive compliance pathway in the National Construction Code, a set of specific provisions that, if followed, are accepted as meeting the performance requirements. It is the default route for most residential work, the alternative being a performance solution. General information, not compliance advice. Building approvals reference. See also: Performance Solution.

Performance Solution

A Performance Solution is a way of meeting the National Construction Code’s performance requirements by means other than the Deemed-to-Satisfy provisions, justified by evidence and analysis. It gives design freedom in exchange for demonstrating and documenting compliance, and it must be prepared and assessed by suitably qualified people. General information, not compliance advice. Building approvals reference. See also: Deemed-to-Satisfy.

Zoning

Zoning is the planning control that assigns land a category, such as residential, setting what uses and development are permitted, permitted with consent or prohibited. It is the first thing a feasibility checks, because it decides whether a proposed home is even allowed before any design begins. General information, not planning advice. DA vs CDC reference.

Setback

A setback is the minimum distance a building must be from a boundary, set by the planning controls to manage privacy, light and streetscape. Setbacks shape the building envelope a home has to fit inside, and getting them wrong at design turns into a redesign or a variation to the consent. General information, not planning advice. DA vs CDC reference. See also: Site coverage.

Site coverage

Site coverage is the proportion of a lot a building may occupy, a planning control that limits how much of the block can be built on. With setbacks and height, it defines the developable envelope, and it is one of the numbers a feasibility tests before committing to a design. General information, not planning advice. DA vs CDC reference. See also: Floor space ratio.

Floor space ratio(FSR)

Floor space ratio is the ratio of a building’s total floor area to the area of its site, a planning control on the bulk of development. Together with height and setbacks it caps how much can be built, and it is measured by the convention the controls define. General information, not planning advice. DA vs CDC reference. See also: Gross floor area.

Building height control

A building height control limits how tall a building may be, measured as a height above ground level or a number of storeys under the planning controls. It interacts with the slope of the site and the finished floor levels, so a height limit that looks generous on flat ground can bind tightly on a sloping block. General information, not planning advice. DA vs CDC reference.

Subdivision

Subdivision is dividing land into separate lots that can be sold or built on individually, approved and then registered through the land titles system. It has its own approval pathway separate from the building work, and its timing and conditions often govern when a home on a new lot can proceed. General information, not planning advice. Easements and covenants reference. See also: Deposited plan.

Torrens title

Torrens title is the standard Australian system of land ownership in which the government-maintained register is the definitive record of who owns a parcel and what interests affect it. Most freestanding houses sit on Torrens title, as distinct from strata or community title, and the register is where easements and covenants are recorded. General information, not legal advice. Easements and covenants reference. See also: Strata title.

Strata title

Strata title is a form of ownership for a lot within a larger building or complex, where the owner holds their unit and shares the common property through an owners corporation or body corporate. It carries by-laws and shared obligations a freestanding house does not, and building work on a strata lot can need the owners corporation’s consent. General information, not legal advice. Easements and covenants reference. See also: Community title.

Community title

Community title is a form of ownership for lots in a shared development that hold individual land but share common areas and a set of rules through a community association. It sits between Torrens and strata title, and its rules and shared costs affect what an owner can build. General information, not legal advice. Easements and covenants reference. See also: Strata title.

Deposited plan(DP)

A deposited plan is the registered survey plan that defines the boundaries and dimensions of a lot in the land titles system, referenced on the title. It is the plan the section 88B instrument attaches to when creating easements and covenants, and it is where a lot’s true dimensions are read from. General information, not legal advice. Easements and covenants reference. See also: Section 88B instrument.

Planning certificate

A planning certificate is the document that sets out the planning controls, zoning and notations affecting a parcel of land, known in NSW as a section 10.7 certificate. It is standard due diligence before design and purchase, and its equivalents in other states go by different names. General information, not planning advice. Easements and covenants reference.

Developer contributions

Developer contributions are payments a consent authority can require toward the public infrastructure a development creates demand for, levied under the relevant state scheme. They can be a material cost on a project, so a feasibility confirms whether they apply and how they are calculated with the relevant authority rather than assuming. General information, not planning advice. Build cost feasibility guide.

Geotechnical report

A geotechnical report, from a soil investigation of a site, describes the ground conditions and gives the site classification the footing design is based on. Ordering it early turns a major cost risk, the foundation, from a surprise during construction into a known input at design and pricing. General information, not engineering advice. Estimating reference. See also: Site classification.

Contour and detail survey

A contour and detail survey records the levels, boundaries and features of a site so the design can respond to the fall of the land, existing structures, trees and services. On a sloping or constrained site it is what stops a design that ignores the real ground and drives cut, fill and retaining costs nobody priced. General information, not survey advice. Build cost feasibility guide.

Identification survey

An identification survey confirms where a building and its improvements sit in relation to the boundaries and easements of a lot. It is used to check that a structure is within the boundaries and clear of easements, a common step before purchase or at completion. General information, not survey advice. Easements and covenants reference. See also: Easement.

Flood planning level

A flood planning level is the level, set by the planning controls, to which building work on flood-prone land must respond, for example a minimum floor level. Where it applies it shapes the design and adds cost, and whether a site is affected and to what level is confirmed with the council or the relevant authority. General information, not planning advice. DA vs CDC reference.

Bushfire prone land

Bushfire prone land is land mapped as carrying bushfire risk, which triggers a bushfire assessment and the construction requirements that flow from the resulting Bushfire Attack Level. Whether a site is mapped as bushfire prone is checked at feasibility, because it can change both the approval pathway and the build cost. General information, not planning advice. Bushfire and BAL reference. See also: Bushfire Attack Level.

Heritage overlay

A heritage overlay is a planning control that applies extra requirements to a property or area of heritage significance, affecting what can be changed, demolished or built. Where it applies it can add approval steps and constraints, so it is identified before design rather than discovered during assessment. General information, not planning advice. DA vs CDC reference.