An Occupation Certificate is the Principal Certifier's decision that the building is suitable to be occupied. It is issued once the final inspection has been passed and every compliance certificate has been received.
It does not certify that the building is well built, or that the owner is happy with it. It certifies that the work meets the standards it was approved against and that nothing outstanding prevents the building from being used.
The final inspection, passed. Every critical stage inspection through the build, carried out at the time it was due. And the compliance certificates from the trades — electrical, plumbing, waterproofing, glazing, termite protection, structural, and whatever else the particular project required.
Those certificates come from different trades on different timetables, and the Occupation Certificate waits for the slowest of them. This is where most projects lose time at the end, and it is entirely avoidable by collecting them as the work finishes rather than after it.
Occupy the building. That is the legal position, and everything else follows from it.
In practice that generally also means it cannot be settled, let or insured as a completed dwelling. A purchaser's solicitor will ask for it. So will a lender, and so will an insurer. Years later, so will the next buyer.
An Occupation Certificate is a document you will be asked for long after you have forgotten where you put it. Every certificate we issue stays in your project in the client portal, so you can produce it at a sale or for an insurer without having to find the original.
Send us the property address and whatever plans exist and we will tell you where you stand — the pathway, what is still needed, and what it will cost. Or call (02) 8772 4022 and we will talk it through.
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