Verandah, Pergola, Carport and Deck Building Permits — Melbourne & Victoria

A verandah, pergola, carport or deck is the structure most often built on the assumption that it’s too small to need a permit. Often the roof, the height or the distance to the fence brings it in, and it is cheapest to find out before the post holes are dug. Patio, alfresco roof, awning, gazebo or pergola — the name on the brochure doesn’t matter; the Regulations ask whether it has a roof, whether it’s fixed to the house, how big it is and where it sits.

Cornerstone is a building surveying practice issuing permits across Melbourne and all of Victoria. People call it council approval, but in Victoria the building permit comes from a building surveyor, not the council, and that is what we issue. We check whether your structure is exempt and whether the siting works, and if it needs a permit we issue it for a fixed fee, quoted up front, inspections included.

When you need a permit

The exemptions sit in Schedule 3 of the Building Regulations 2018, and every condition has to be met at once.

Pergola permits: the roof decides

An open pergola — unroofed, or covered only with open-weave material such as shade cloth — can be exempt. The key figures are 20 m² of floor area, 3.6 m in height and no more than 2.5 m forward of the front wall of the house. Put a solid roof on it, polycarbonate included, and it is a verandah. Our guide on whether roofing a pergola needs a permit has the conditions.

Verandah permits

A roofed verandah fixed to the house — Colorbond, tiles, polycarbonate, the alfresco roof on a new home — is an addition to the house and needs a building permit whatever its size. A small freestanding gazebo can be exempt under the rule for garden sheds, where the key figure is 10 m² of floor area. Add walls, doors and a ceiling and it is an extension; the guide covers enclosing a verandah.

Carport permits and boundaries

A carport of 10 m² or less is too small for most cars, so in practice a carport needs a permit. Position matters as much as size: on or within a metre of a side or rear boundary, it must be open on the boundary side and inside the length and height limits for boundary walls in the siting regulations. Past those limits, or into the front setback, the design needs report and consent from council first.

Deck permits and the 1 m barrier rule

A deck fixed to the house is permit work whatever its height; we don’t rely on any size exemption for it. The 1 m figure people quote is the barrier rule in the National Construction Code: a fall of 1 m or more from the deck to the ground needs a balustrade. A low freestanding deck is a case-by-case question our surveyor confirms from the drawings.

Free check. Send us the supplier’s drawings and a rough site plan and we’ll tell you for free which side of the line you’re on.

What we need from you

The supplier’s drawings or engineering (kit structures come with them; a carpenter-built deck needs a framing plan with footing and bearer sizes), a site plan showing the structure relative to the boundaries, the house and any easements, and the property address. No site plan? A marked-up aerial photo is enough to start. If your supplier, installer or contractor wants to send the drawings to us direct, they can — the permit is still issued in your name and we come back to both of you.

What it costs

Included in the fixed fee. The assessment, the building permit, the inspections the job needs, and the certificate of final inspection — or an occupancy permit where the job calls for one.

Charged separately and passed through. Council’s report-and-consent fee where the siting needs it, the state building permit levy where it applies, the engineer’s design if the structure needs one, and any easement consent from the water authority. Each is itemised on the quote.

What changes the fee. Report and consent, an easement consent, or two structures on one job, such as a deck with a verandah over it.

Send the drawings and we quote a fixed fee, usually within one business day. Builders, suppliers and installers who send us regular work can ask for our fee schedule — see our page for builders and suppliers.

Where we do this work

Verandahs, pergolas and decks usually go on a year or two after handover, so most of this work comes from the estate suburbs: Craigieburn and Wollert in the north, Tarneit and Point Cook in the western suburbs, Clyde North and Officer in south-east Melbourne. On those lots the building envelope and the rear setback tend to decide whether the job is exempt, and the estate’s design approval is a separate step from the building permit. Decks on the sloping blocks through Knox and the Yarra Ranges bring the balustrade rule into play.

Things that catch people out

• Sloping blocks. A deck that is knee-high at the house can be over a metre at the far edge. The barrier rule is measured at the highest fall.
• Easements. Building over a sewer or drainage easement needs the service authority’s consent before the permit can issue, and under the Water Act even where no permit is.