Renovations - Exempt, Complying and Council Approval

When you are considering renovating your home there are three pathways that you can go down for approval, depending on the extent that you are changing:

1. Exempt Development: does not require approval. These are small building elements such as: fences, some carports, some decks, garden sheds, driveways. So long as they comply with the rules from the Exempt and Complying Development Codes 2008. 

Internal changes that you can make are renovating an existing bathroom, replace deteriorated structure (with the same or greater), wardrobes, workstations and some other small things. 

Some builders think mistakenly that if you are only making internal changes to a building then it is exempt development, this is not the case as exempt development does: 

(b)  not include a change to the configuration of a room, whether by removal of an existing wall, partition or other means, and

(c)  not cause reduced window arrangements for light and ventilation needs, reduce the size of a doorway or involve the enclosure of an open area, 

So basically if you are renovating and are planning on moving internal walls and or changing external windows then it will be either complying development or a DA/CC, depending on what the changes are. 

There are a lot of builders who will also convert a garage to a habitable room, thinking it is exempt development when it is not because of Subdivision 26 (minor alterations) of the SEPP above and also because you still need a minimum of 1 car space behind the front setback line.

Here is a link to the area of the code that deals with internal changes, look it over to check if you comply:

legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/epi-2008-0572#pt.2-div.1-sdiv.26 

Its important to get approval because it can be difficult to get insurance and council can also order you to demolish or reverse the works because they have not been certified so they may not be safe for future owners and tenants.

2. Complying Development: does require approval, it must be submitted to the NSW planning portal and a certifier appointed. It is preferrable to DA/CC and because it takes less time and is a cheaper approval process. You will need plans and structural drawings. So if you are making changes to internal walls and external windows and comply with all the requirements this is preferable. Here are the requirements: Exempt and Complying Development Codes 2008. 

Complying development does not just apply to alterations and additons, it has been extended to houses, dual occupancies, industrial and even townhouses.

3. Development Application (DA)/ Construction Certificate (CC): this is the longest process, particularly with the Central Coast Council, so if possible we recommend complying development instead, as it may take 2 -18months just for Development Application approval. The reason we would recommend it is that your site may not be eligible for complying development or you need to achieve something outside the complying development setbacks, height limits and other constraints. It can allow you to get what you really want and this is sometimes worth it, particularly if the view or finished product will be spectacular and superior to anything you can achieve under the constraints of complying development.