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buildingcertificate.com.auA guide published by Dotto
Building certification, state by state

One certificate, one date, and the law on both sides of it

A finished building is signed off by one document, and in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT it carries a different name in each. Behind it sits what the law requires to exist first; in front of it, what switches on afterwards.

This is a guide published by Dotto, not a government page. It is general information only, and every rule on it is stated for the state or territory whose law makes it.

Before it is issued

  • NSW The principal certifier will attend the site to carry out mandatory inspections at certain stages. 1
  • NSW The applicant's job includes communicating with the builder so the certifier is notified when the work reaches each stage. 1
  • NSW The conditions of any development consent must be met, and the development carried out in accordance with the approved plans. 1
  • NSW All regulated designs and design compliance declarations must be provided before a construction certificate or complying development certificate is issued. 2
  • NSW The building compliance declaration and any as-built designs must be lodged on the NSW Planning Portal before the application for an occupation certificate. 2
  • NSW Fees are paid upfront, for any work on the application or any function of a principal certifier. 1
  • NSW The building work levy is paid as part of the application for an occupation certificate for a regulated building class, currently classes 2, 3 and 9c. 3
  • NSW For residential apartment buildings of four storeys or higher, where the contract was made on or after 1 January 2018, the developer lodges a defects bond of 2% of the building contract price before applying for an occupation certificate. 4
  • ACT Where residential building work requires insurance, the building certifier must check the insurance is in place before issuing a building commencement notice to the builder. 5
  • NSW If a mandatory inspection is missed, the certifier may have to refuse to issue an occupation certificate. 1
  • NSW occupation certificate 1
  • VIC occupancy permit or certificate of final inspection 6
  • TAS Certificate of Occupancy 7
  • ACT certificate of occupancy 8
  • NSW, residential apartment buildings: an order can prohibit an occupation certificate where there are defects 4
  • QLD, WA, SA and NT: not drawn here

Once it is issued

  • TAS In Tasmania a new house can be moved into once the permit conditions are satisfied and the Certificate of Occupancy has been received. 7
  • VIC In Victoria a vendor of an off-the-plan apartment may not ask the buyer to take possession, or allow it, until an occupancy permit exists for the lot. 9
  • NSW Once an occupation certificate is issued for a residential apartment building, the developer can require purchasers to settle. 4
  • NSW When building or installing a new pool, you must not allow the pool to be used by anyone until an occupation certificate has been issued. 10
  • NSW For a rental with a swimming pool or spa pool, the landlord or agent must give the tenant a copy of the certificate of compliance or occupation certificate. 10

Four of the eight states and territories are not drawn on this line, because the official pages this guide is written from do not name their documents. Queensland is the one of the four the pages do speak to: the Brisbane City Council's building approval page names a licensed building certifier to organise the approval. 11 The other three are not drawn on this line; Western Australia and South Australia appear only in the clocks below. Each guide below says which states it draws and which it leaves to their own regulators.

The clocks: when each state starts counting

Every bar below is the period its own state’s official page gives, drawn from the event that page starts it from. Each row’s length is years on one scale; each row’s zero is its own event, named at the bar’s left end.

  1. NSW Time to commence proceedings for a breach of statutory warranty

    from completion of the work 6 years, major defects
    from completion of the work 2 years, all other defects

    Building Commission NSW’s time limits table runs from completion of the work: major defects, 6 years, and all other defects, 2 years. 4

  2. VIC The statutory building warranties

    from the date the occupancy permit or certificate of final inspection was issued up to 10 years

    Consumer Affairs Victoria: the warranties apply for up to 10 years after the date the occupancy permit or certificate of final inspection was issued, even if the property sells several times. 6

  3. TAS The statutory warranties

    from the date of practical completion 6 years
    or, where that date cannot be shown, from the grant of the occupancy permit or of the approval for the work 6 years

    Building Standards Tasmania: the six years are measured from practical completion, and where nobody can establish that date, they are measured instead from the grant of the occupancy permit, or of the approval for the work. 7

  4. QLD Queensland home warranty cover

    from the earliest of the premium paid, the contract entered into, or the start of the work 6 years and 6 months

    The QBCC: the cover lasts 6 years and 6 months from the earliest of the three events named at the bar’s left end (it can be extended by 6 months). 12

  5. SA Defective works claims

    from the date the building work was completed up to 5 years, usually

    SA Government: defective works claims can usually be made up to 5 years from the date the building work was completed. 13

  6. WA Home indemnity insurance cover

    from the date of practical completion 6 years

    Building and Energy WA: the cover runs six years from practical completion and responds if the builder dies, vanishes or is insolvent. 14

Seven guides, each a position on the line

Every guide below carries the same line at its top, with its own place on it lit. Together they answer what the document is called where you live, who may sign it, what has to be in place first, what changes when it is issued, when your protection starts and how long it runs, what a pre-purchase report is not, and what a buyer can do about work that has no approval.

  • What it is called where you live

    Four jurisdictions, four names for one signed-off building, and what the line does not draw for the other four.

  • Who may sign it

    The classes the laws name, the one they forbid, and the register a reader can check.

  • What has to be in place

    The staged inspections, the lodged declarations, the fees paid upfront, the levy and the bond, in the order the law takes them.

  • What it changes

    Possession, settlement, the first lawful use of a pool, the copy a tenant is owed, and the order that can stop it.

  • When protection starts

    The periods, and the far more useful part: the event each state starts counting from.

  • A report is not a certificate

    A note drawn off the line: what a pre-purchase report is, what it is not, and who may write one.

  • Buying with no certificate

    The line drawn broken: the ACT, Victoria, Queensland and SA rules for work that has no approval.

How to read the line

Every item on the line is a claim with a source. The small number beside it points to that page in the sources list at the foot of this page, and the hidden note beside it carries the claim's own name for the record. A reader can follow any item back to the page it came from.

The tag in front of an item is a state, and it is not decoration: a rule stated for NSW is that state's rule, and it is not stated here for anywhere else. Where the pages this guide is written from are silent about a state, the line says "not drawn here" rather than filling the gap with another state's rule.

The two red rules are the law's own stops, not advice: a missed mandatory inspection that can cost the certificate, and, in New South Wales for a residential apartment building, an order that can prohibit one where there are defects.

The clocks under the first screen are the same kind of item. Each bar's period, and the event each bar starts from, come from the state named on that bar, and the sentence under it is the source's own account of the rule.