What drawings do you need for a building permit?

A building permit is assessed from paper. If the drawings do not show something, the surveyor cannot assume it. Most of the waiting on a permit is not the assessment — it is chasing a document that should have been in the first email. What is needed depends on the project.

The full package: new homes and extensions

A new home, or an extension that adds habitable rooms, needs all of the following.

Site plan. Boundaries and dimensions, the building’s position and setbacks, easements, the crossover and the stormwater point of discharge. To scale, with a north point.
Floor plans. Every level, with room names, dimensions, wall types, window and door positions and smoke alarms.
Elevations. All sides, with wall heights, floor levels, natural ground levels and the roof form.
Sections. At least one cut through the building showing footings, slab, wall and roof construction and ceiling heights.
Engineering. Footing and slab design, steel beams and lintels, bracing and tie-down, signed by the engineer.
Soil report. The soil report sets the site class, and the slab and footings are designed to it. The engineering has to match it.
Energy report. Habitable buildings need one — for a new home, a 7-star energy rating report — and it must match the drawings: the same windows, insulation and orientation.
Specification. Materials, finishes and the standards the work is built to, where the drawings do not already say.
Planning permit and endorsed plans, where the planning scheme calls for one — commonly an overlay, or more than one dwelling on the lot. The building permit has to be consistent with them.
Title and plan of subdivision. These show the registered boundaries, covenants and easements. Building over an easement needs the report and consent of the authority it is vested in — usually council or the water authority, but it can be the sewerage, drainage, electricity or gas authority — and that consent has to be in hand before the permit can issue.
Builder or owner-builder details. A registered builder’s registration number and, for a major domestic building contract, the insurance certificate — or an owner-builder’s certificate of consent from the Building and Plumbing Commission where the value of the work is above the Commission’s threshold.

Lots in a designated bushfire prone area add a BAL assessment. Extensions add the existing floor plan with the parts being removed marked.

Sheds, garages, carports and verandahs

A much smaller package — the same one we ask for on our shed and garage permits page. Most kit sheds come with the supplier’s engineering: elevations, sections, member sizes and footing or slab details, certified for a stated wind classification. Check that it covers your site — an exposed block on the edge of an estate can sit above the kit’s standard rating, and the supplier will issue site-specific engineering if asked.

To that you add a site plan showing the distance from the shed to each boundary and to the house, the title, and the address. A carport or verandah attached to the house also needs a detail showing how it fixes to the existing frame.

Retaining walls

An engineer’s design showing the wall type, footing, drainage and any load it carries from above — a driveway, a pool, a neighbour’s ground — plus a site plan with the wall’s line relative to the boundary and the ground levels on each side, and the title. Not sure the wall needs a permit at all? Our guide on when a retaining wall needs a building permit covers the height and boundary triggers.

Demolition

Less about drawings, more about consents: a site plan marking what is going and what is staying, with boundaries, neighbouring buildings and the street; a written demolition method and evidence the demolisher has the experience and equipment for it; engineering for whatever is left standing, if only part is coming down; any planning permit; and council’s Section 29A consent where the job triggers it. Abolishing the gas, electricity, water and sewer is not a document for the permit — but it runs on the distributors’ clock, so start early. Our demolition permit guide walks through the order, and our demolition permits page covers what the fixed fee includes.

When a marked-up aerial photo is enough

For a shed, carport or small outbuilding, you do not need a drafted site plan to start. An aerial photo with the structure drawn in and rough distances to the fences is enough for us to say whether it needs a permit, whether the siting works, and what the fixed fee will be. It is not enough to issue the permit: that needs a dimensioned site plan, which the shed supplier or a drafter can produce.

Common gaps that stall assessment

The energy report was done on an earlier drawing and the windows changed since.
Engineering designed for a different soil class, or no soil report.
Kit shed engineering not certified for the site’s wind classification.
No sections, so construction and ceiling heights have to be guessed.
No title, so an easement under the garage turns up at the last minute.
The drawings not matching the endorsed planning plans, or endorsed plans not supplied.
The owner-builder certificate of consent not yet applied for. We cannot issue until it arrives.
The surveyor appointment unsigned. Until the owner appoints us, we cannot start.

For the full new-home package and what happens after the permit issues, see our new home building permits page. Not sure what you have? Send it through the quote form — no drawings are required to ask — and we will list what is missing, once.