faqs

A building approval is approved by a private certifier. It’s requirements are triggered when any engineering is required.

A development approval is approved by the council. A town planner will need to be engaged to prepare an application on behalf of the owner. A DA is required if the proposed plans do not comply with the council requirements.

As per the National Construction Code (NCC):

“A habitable room is used for domestic activities. Examples include a bedroom, living room, lounge room, music room, television room, kitchen, dining room, sewing room, study, playroom, family room, home theatre, and sunroom.”

A non-habitable room refers to spaces not intended for regular occupancy or living purposes. Examples include bathrooms, laundries, water closets, pantries, walk-in wardrobes, corridors, hallways, and other specialised areas that are not used frequently or for extended periods.

It is the name of the application if you need to “build over services”. This could be sewer or water lines. An engineer will need to provide a design for the application to ensure no load is added to the pipes to avoid breakage. The ‘owner’ of the pipe is either Urban Utilities or your local council.

In new suburbs, most services are conveniently run along the footpath. Or, if your land slopes rearward, the services will be found along the back boundary.

If you own an older block the services may not be in the most logical location. Ugh.

Watch out, they can be found any which way! Check out “dial before you dig” here: https://www.byda.com.au/

Services that may be present include:

• sewer lines
• water connection
• stormwater discharge
• gas lines

Each council has a ‘city plan’ which indicates what ‘overlays’ are on your block. They are often there to help preserve the character of the neighbourhood. Please refer to your relevant council website below for details:

• Brisbane City Plan: https://cityplan.brisbane.qld.gov.au/eplan 
• Ipswich City Plan: https://developmenti.ipswich.qld.gov.au/ 

The restrictions may include:

• size of the dwelling
• site coverage
• height of dwelling
• character of the dwelling (in certain areas)
• Demolition restrictions
• height of floor level (flood overlays)
• bushfire requirements
• additional acoustic requirements

A building certifier is the ultimate checklist checker. They go through and ensure that the plans comply with the Queensland Development Code (QDC), specific council requirements etc. This includes verifying that buildings are structurally sound, safe from fire, protected against pests, and meet energy and water efficiency standards. Then at the end of the build, they will come back and confirm that the builder built as per the plans.      

While private building certifiers issue most building approvals, Brisbane City Council also offers these services. Certifiers must lodge building work documentation with the Council and conduct technical inspections throughout the building process.

More information about the building approval or certification process is available on the BCC website at this link.

A building approval is approved by a private certifier. It’s requirements are triggered when any engineering is required.

A development approval is approved by the council. A town planner will need to be engaged to prepare an application on behalf of the owner. A DA is required if the proposed plans do not comply with the council (BCC or ICC) requirements.

The Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) rating categorises the severity of potential bushfire exposure and dictates the minimum construction requirements necessary to increase a building’s resistance to bushfires.

BAL-LOW: Low risk, no special construction requirements.

BAL-12.5: Low to moderate risk, some ember protection required.

BAL-19: Moderate risk, additional ember protection and protection against radiant heat.

BAL-29: High risk, more stringent requirements for ember protection and radiant heat.

BAL-40: Very high risk, even stricter construction requirements.

BAL-FZ (Flame Zone): Extreme risk, requires the highest level of protection, including against direct flame contact.

When designing a building in a bushfire-prone area, knowing the BAL is essential to ensure compliance with local regulations and to enhance the safety of the building’s occupants.

Sometimes. This will depend on who owns the easement, and what the easement is for. The certifier will do an application either to the Brisbane or Ipswich City Council, or to Urban Utilities. To find out who owns the easement, a titles search maybe required, which for Queensland properties can be done at this link:  https://www.titlesqld.com.au/title-searches/ 

The livable housing design guidelines are technical provisions that have been set to help meet the needs of the community. The main requirements are to allow access to and through the dwelling. Providing wider openings and doorways, and reducing any trip hazards.

Your local council may have copies of your house plans, depending on when it was built, renovated or extended.  If your home had a Building Approval or a Development approval to build, renovate or extend after 1987, Brisbane City Council should have copies of these plans (see link below). The documents may include the house plans, site plan, decision notices and any relevant design certificates. The fees to access an electronic copy of these documents are $175.30 per record, at time of writing.

https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/planning-and-building/buying-selling-and-searches/building-plans

If your local council does not have access to your house plans, you can engage a building designer or a drafter to do a site measure, where they can accurately measure your existing house, and then provide current floor plans and elevations for you to use. This can be useful if plans are visually easier for you to visually understand the connection and flow through your house, and might make it easier to identify why the layout is not functioning smoothly.

Over the years the councils of South East Queensland have changed their boundaries, and the plans may have been lost in the process. Logan City Council for example extended their boundaries south and west in 2012, gaining additional residential properties but not necessarily all the plans to go with them.  Over the last 50 years, methods of storing data and files have changed, adapted and improved along the way, and each subsequent change may have meant that previous records have been lost. 

Finding out that an extension to your house is not approved is sometimes a bit of an uncomfortable surprise. If you are looking to purchase the property, it can be a red flag. A common addition previous owners do is slyly adding a deck on the back, avoiding the approval process to save money.  If it is not approved, it may not be insurable, and worst case scenario may not be built properly. I would advise contacting your insurance agency to confirm any concerns. It can also affect the re-sale or value of the building. 

There are a few things to do. Contact a certifier to find out whether it is possible to obtain a post-construction approval. This will depend on a couple of factors:

1. Whether the structure, as built, would have been approved under existing regulations..

2. Whether an engineer is willing to sign off on it, as they must guarantee that the existing structure is structurally sound. This could be difficult to prove if they can not access elements like footings etc. There might be certain clues that make them suspicious about the structural integrity.

Next, you will need to get plans drawn up for the existing structure and liaise with an engineer to determine whether any modifications are required in order for them to sign off on it.

If it is a structure that would not have been approved, you may be required to remove it.

A drafter is capable of drawing house plans. However, they are not insured or licensed. This means that the plans are unable to receive council approval. Often drafters work for larger companies and their work is then licensed under that company.

Building designers can draw up your plans, and have a design background, so are capable of providing great ideas for extending, renovating, building under, adding a level on top, or a combination of the above. Building designers are required to be licenced and insured. By engaging a building designer, you benefit from having professionally prepared plans that can be used for obtaining council approval and by your builder during construction.

Architects can provide the highest level of design, however this means they often over-qualified (and a pricier option) for a simple extension to a residential home.

If you are doing any structural modifications to your house you will need approval. A structural modification is any change that will require an engineer. Internal renovations can be tricky to confirm as a homeowner. Some walls can be removed without an engineer as they are not load bearing. But other walls are ‘load bearing’ which means that the roof is supported by that wall. If you remove the wall, the roof has potential to fall in. An engineer will specify a beam to support the roof without the need for a wall. A builder can often confirm whether the wall is load bearing or not, this could mean a trip up into the ceiling cavity to check out the structure inside. The roof structure of Queenslanders also offers clues to which walls are load bearing. But if you are suspicious of past modifications it might be worth confirming with an engineer.

The same setbacks for your house are applicable for a deck. The setbacks as per a house are height-dependent, lot size- and street boundary-dependant. 

Generally on a 450m² + block, a roofed deck on the first floor level is required to be 2.0m from the Outer Most Projection (OMP). The OMP is usually the eave, as it is the closest point to the boundary. If you have a block smaller than  450m², it falls within the rules of Brisbane City Council’s Small Lot Code, which provides a sliding scale, the smaller and narrower the lot, the closer you can build to the boundary.

A pool is required to be a minimum 1.0m from the boundary.

Generally, no. You can add an additional bathroom or ensuite within the existing footprint of your house without the need for certification, only a plumbing permit is required. However there are exceptions to this based on site specifications. You will need to discuss these with your plumber. If you are moving any walls you will need to confirm with your builder that those walls are not load bearing. If they are load bearing and an engineer is required, that will be what triggers certification.