Real estate advertising sometimes notifies potential buyers
that the house or land has already had the council applications approved,
meaning that the new owner can straight away start the building works on that
property.
Depending upon the type of
building work it may only be necessary to lodge a BA- Building Approval or if
it’s a larger project you may have to initially apply for a DA- Development
Application.
Some examples that require a
DA are if you are applying to do something major, such as have a property
rezoned into a different building class, or encroach on a boundary, do building
work to a dwelling with a building control on it or you are planning a major
development. The DA usually takes longer to prepare and have assessed and
usually costs more. Most times a town planner is needed to prepare this
assessment.
If you need a DA, you can
only submit your BA after that has been approved. The BA is a lodgment consisting
largely of the building plans that you’ve had drawn up by the architect or
drafts person. These are assessed to ensure they meet the relevant building
codes.
The nature of a DA means that
you are seeking an approval for something larger than general building works.
This approval will usually take a while from the beginning and through the
assessment stage. Plans will be required, town planning reports will need to be
prepared and then the lodgment time is on top of that. The approval body may
come back and request modifications or may not approve it at all. At that stage
you may have to redesign and resubmit. The whole DA process can take from a few
months to years. A DA holds a lot of weight due to the nature of its request,
costs and the permission granted. Therefore an approved DA is usually quite
valuable to the sale of the property.
A BA, when relating to a
domestic dwelling are plans that the home owner has had drawn up to create
their version of an ideal house. Whilst it might be their ideal vision, that
opinion may not be shared by future property purchasers. One man’s castle may
not be for another. Therefore an approved BA may not add any value to your
sale.
The other thing to keep in
mind is that any type of approval has a time limit attached to it. Building
works need to begin within a certain time. Depending upon the age of the
approval it’s value may have decreased and it may not be a simple case of
getting a renewal as legislation may have changed in that time which could
render your approval non compliant for a renewal.
