Report and consent explained: when council has a say in your building permit

A building permit is usually issued by a private building surveyor rather than council, and most of the time council never sees the drawings. Report and consent is the exception: the situations where the Regulations say a design cannot be approved until council, or another authority, has agreed to it. Here is when that happens and how to avoid it.

The Building Regulations 2018 set rules a design is expected to meet: how far a building sits from the street and side boundaries, how high it can be near a fence, how much it can shadow the neighbour’s yard. Most of these rules carry a clause that says, in effect, unless the relevant council has given its report and consent. Missing the rule is not a dead end, but the surveyor cannot issue the permit until council has decided.

It is a building matter, separate from a planning permit. A project can need one, the other, both or neither. Where a planning permit is required and the planning scheme deals with the same siting matter, that siting rule in the Regulations drops away, so have the overlays checked before anything is drawn. An approved building envelope on an estate lot works the same way for the matters it covers.

The matters that most often trigger it

For houses and outbuildings, the siting rules in Part 5 of the Regulations produce most applications:

Street setback — closer to the front boundary than the neighbours’ setbacks allow.
Side and rear setbacks, and walls on boundaries — the most common one on narrow blocks; boundary walls have limits on length and height.
Building height and site coverage.
Overshadowing, daylight and overlooking — protecting a neighbour’s north-facing windows and private open space.
Sheds and garages in the front setback and front fence height.

Three more come up often:

Building over an easement. The consent needed is from whichever authority the easement is vested in. If it is council’s, typically for drainage, council deals with it alongside any siting matters. If a water corporation’s sewer or drain runs through it, that corporation’s build-over consent is needed as well, and it is usually the slower of the two.
Land liable to flooding and projections over the street, such as awnings and balconies past the title boundary. On flood-prone land council can also set the lowest floor level.
Demolition. Section 29A of the Building Act 1993 requires council’s report and consent before a demolition permit can issue where more than half the building is coming down, counting any demolition in the previous three years, or any part of a street-facing facade is. Council can only refuse if a planning permit is needed and has not been obtained. Our demolition permit guide covers it step by step.

Who applies and who decides

The owner applies, or someone on the owner’s behalf: the surveyor, the draftsperson or the builder. If nobody does, the surveyor has to refer the application to council before deciding the permit. We lodge these for our clients: the application is stronger when it names the regulation, states the non-compliance in metres and explains why the design still meets the intent of the rule.

Council decides. For siting matters on a house it follows the Minister’s guideline on the siting and design of single dwellings, and where it thinks a neighbour could be affected it must give that neighbour a chance to comment before it decides. It can consent, consent with conditions, or refuse, and if it refuses it has to give reasons.

What it costs and how long it takes

Council charges a fee for each application. The Regulations cap it, in fee units that are indexed each year, it is paid to council, and it sits outside our fixed fee. We flag it at quote stage. Some councils charge for each regulation you are varying, so it pays to remove the triggers you can.

The Regulations give council a set number of business days to answer once the application reaches it: for siting matters on a house the key period is 15 business days. It can take longer if a neighbour objects or council asks for more information. It runs alongside our assessment, and we keep fast turnaround times on our side of it, but the permit cannot issue until the consent is in.

How a surveyor helps you avoid it

The cheapest report and consent is the one you never lodge. A siting check on a preliminary drawing looks for exactly these triggers: a boundary wall a little too long, a shed a few hundred millimetres too tall, a window that overlooks next door. Many disappear with a small change — shift the shed, step the wall, move a window — that costs nothing on paper and saves the wait on council. Sometimes the non-compliance is the point of the design; then we say so and prepare the application properly. Either way you know before you commit.

If council refuses

A refusal is not the end. You can amend the design so it complies, resubmit with changes that answer council’s reasons, or appeal to the Building Appeals Board, which reviews council report and consent decisions. Most take the first route because it is faster; an appeal is for when the change would wreck the project and the case on merit is strong.

It comes up most often on extensions and second storeys squeezed between the house and the boundary. Our extensions and renovations page covers what we need to run that siting check. Or send the drawings through the quote form and we will tell you whether council needs to be involved at all.