How we work
The steps from your first enquiry to the occupation certificate, who you deal with, and what you get at each stage.
Enquiry
You send the project's details, and plans by email. We reply with a fee proposal, or with a list of what we need to prepare one.
Engagement
The certification work is carried out under a written contract. Where our registered certifier is to be principal certifier, the person with the benefit of the development consent makes the appointment before building work starts.
Construction certificate
The application is lodged on the NSW Planning Portal. The plans and specifications are checked against the development consent and the Building Code of Australia. Our registered certifier issues the certificate only when its requirements are met.
Inspections during work
Before work starts, you are told which inspections the work needs. The work is inspected at the stages the Regulation sets, and each inspection is recorded.
Occupation certificate
After the final inspection and the occupation certificate application, our registered certifier issues the certificate only when its requirements are met.
Who you deal with
You deal with one named person from your first enquiry to the occupation certificate. The certificates are issued by our registered certifier.
What you get at each stage
When information is missing, our aim is one request for information that lists everything outstanding.
Class 2 buildings: before a construction certificate
For building work on a class 2 building that the Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 covers, a construction certificate cannot be issued until the certifier has each design compliance declaration it needs to issue the certificate, and the regulated design that each declaration covers (Design and Building Practitioners Regulation 2021, clause 29). The declarations come from registered design practitioners.
Before building work starts, the regulated designs and their declarations are lodged on the NSW Planning Portal. Where the work runs under more than one construction certificate, this happens before the work under each certificate starts (clause 16).
The Fire and Rescue NSW step
On a class 2 to 9 building whose design uses a performance solution for a fire safety requirement, Fire and Rescue NSW is asked for comments on the performance-based design brief while the brief is developed. The certifier then sends the construction certificate application, plans and specifications to Fire and Rescue NSW, and considers its initial fire safety report before issuing the certificate. The Regulation sets a time limit for each step, and says when the certifier may go ahead without a report (Environmental Planning and Assessment (Development Certification and Fire Safety) Regulation 2021, sections 26 to 28).
On other class 2 to 9 buildings, conditions on our registered certifier's registration require the certifier to apply to Fire and Rescue NSW for a written report, and to consider any report it gives, before issuing a construction certificate or complying development certificate. The conditions set exceptions and time limits, and are on the public register entry.
Before the occupation certificate, where the work used a performance solution for fire safety, the certifier asks Fire and Rescue NSW for a final fire safety report (section 50). On a class 2 or 3 building where a hydraulic fire safety system, a fire detection and alarm system or a mechanical ducted smoke control system was installed, extended or modified, the certifier asks for a fire safety system report unless a final fire safety report has been given (section 51).
Staged certificates
A large job can run under more than one construction certificate, each issued before the work it covers starts, with occupation certificates for parts of the building as they are completed.
Complying development
A complying development certificate is available only for development that a code in the Exempt and Complying Development Codes SEPP (or another environmental planning instrument) lists as complying development, on land it does not exclude, and that meets that code's standards; any other development needs a development application.
On this pathway the complying development certificate is the development consent, and no construction certificate is needed (Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, section 6.7(2)).
Enquiry and engagement
As above. Where our registered certifier is to be principal certifier, the person with the benefit of the complying development certificate makes the appointment before building work starts.
Complying development certificate
The application is lodged on the NSW Planning Portal. The development is checked against the code's standards and the Building Code of Australia. Our registered certifier issues the certificate only when its requirements are met.
Class 2 and fire safety
The design compliance declarations and regulated designs are needed before a complying development certificate as well (Design and Building Practitioners Regulation 2021, clause 29). On class 2 to 9 buildings, the conditions on our registered certifier's registration, set out above, apply to complying development certificates too.
Inspections and occupation certificate
Before work starts, you are told which inspections the work needs. The work is inspected at the stages the Regulation sets. After the final inspection and the occupation certificate application, our registered certifier issues the certificate only when its requirements are met.