Where council has already granted development consent, the Construction Certificate is the second half of the approval. It has to be issued before building work begins.
Development consent settles the planning question: whether the building may exist at all, at that size, in that place. It does not settle how it is to be built. The Construction Certificate does that.
It confirms two things. First, that the construction drawings and specifications satisfy the Building Code of Australia. Second, that the conditions council attached to the consent — the ones that must be satisfied before construction — have in fact been satisfied.
A Construction Certificate cannot change your consent. If the plans submitted for a CC no longer match what council approved, the certificate cannot be issued over the difference. The consent has to be modified first. Catching that mismatch early is one of the more useful things a certifier does for you.
Owners whose development application has been approved by council and who now need the second half of the approval before building work can begin.
Builders who have been handed a consent and want the conditions read properly before the program is set.
Anyone whose drawings have moved on since council granted consent, and who needs to know whether the change is small enough to certify or large enough to need a modification.
A read of the development consent and every condition attached to it, with the pre-construction conditions separated out so you know what has to be satisfied before anything can be issued.
An assessment of the construction drawings and specifications against the Building Code of Australia.
A check that what is now proposed is consistent with what council actually consented to.
Lodgement and determination through the NSW Planning Portal, and the certificate itself.
If you want it, the Principal Certifier appointment, the critical stage inspections through the build and the Occupation Certificate at the end.
A development consent typically carries conditions that have to be dealt with before a Construction Certificate can issue — long service levy, section 7.11 or 7.12 contributions, a bond, a stormwater or driveway design approved by council, an engineer's certification, a BASIX commitment.
Each one has to be evidenced, and each one is a document somebody has to obtain. On a project where nobody is tracking them, they get discovered one at a time, and each discovery costs a week.
We list every pre-construction condition at the start and put it in your portal as a checklist, so you and your builder can work through them together and see exactly what is left.
We can issue the Construction Certificate promptly once all required documentation is complete.
That is not a marketing figure — it reflects what the work actually is. The assessment is a documentation check, so once the file is genuinely complete there is nothing left to wait for. The time in a CC is spent gathering, not assessing.
A Construction Certificate on its own is not permission to commence. A Principal Certifier has to be appointed, and notice of commencement has to be given before work begins.
We can act as your Principal Certifier as well, which keeps the inspections, the certificates and the final Occupation Certificate in one place rather than split across two firms.
Booking trades before the certificate is issued. Building work cannot lawfully start until the Construction Certificate is in hand, and a condition that has not been satisfied will hold it up regardless of how the program reads.
Not reading the conditions. Section 7.11 or 7.12 contributions, a bond, a road opening permit, a tree protection plan, a construction management plan — these are the usual reasons a project sits still with an approval in the drawer.
Assuming the consent drawings and the construction drawings are the same thing. They very often are not, and a Construction Certificate cannot be issued for work that is inconsistent with the consent.
Leaving engineering to the end. Structural and stormwater design are part of the assessment, not something that follows it.
Forgetting that the certifier who issues the Construction Certificate does not have to be the Principal Certifier — but somebody has to be appointed as Principal Certifier, by the owner, before work starts.
No. Development consent settles the planning approval. A Construction Certificate must be issued, a Principal Certifier appointed and notice of commencement given before building work may lawfully begin.
We can issue it promptly once all required documentation is complete. The time a CC takes is almost entirely the time spent obtaining the documents and satisfying the council's pre-construction conditions.
Either council or a registered private certifier. You are free to choose, regardless of which council granted the development consent.
Send us the address and the plans and we will come back to you with a fixed fee and what the certification will involve. Or call (02) 8772 4022 and we will talk it through.
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