So today we got an email from our building co-ordinator to say we finally have developer approval for our house and landscape plans.
After a fair bit of back and forth and tweaks and changes it was very welcome news.
Next step is to get council approval. I rang and spoke to the council today to find out exactly what is required and have compiled the list of documents and forms they need.
If all goes smoothly we should receive our council approval within 60 days. (Hopefully sooner)
Really looking forward to receiving a start date for the build. We’d love to be in before Christmas.
Waldorf Grange Build 
Hi, So glad you finally got some good news!! Can I ask what documents are required by the council? I was under the impression that PD would look after everything with the council, permits etc?
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No Porter Davis are not responsible for Council Approval, the home owner is. It did state this from the very beginning in the initial documents we were given when we paid our $2000 deposit. Although not all blocks require a Council Approval. Ours however did. It is called a Planning Permit Application.
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Thanks for that I better look into it. Ours is a KDR so we may need approval.
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Yes if you call your council they will look up your address in the system and verify whether it is required or not.
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We too are building a Waldorf but as a Hyde Park in Milan style. We got good news today too with a site cut date of 19th Jan with Slab pout due early Feb. Porter Davis arrange Building approval/permits but not Town Planning. We recently went through town planning and used a local draftsman with town planning experience in our area to arrange it instead of us doing our own application. Our particular issue was that our over all build height was above the allowed height In our area. Based on his suggestions from an earlier meeting we moved forward and had town planning approval in about 2 weeks without having to change anything. Unfortunately we had to do secondary consent (also done in about 2 weeks) after changes were required for the building approval/permits part. The whole process of building permit and town planning took a bit of time but it was so much easier having someone look after it for us. It only cost a few hundred dollars extra for the draftsmans time on top of council application fees. Good luck with your build I’ll be watching it progress.
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I see on your blog that you have Modwood privacy screening for your upstairs decking. Was this a council or developer requirement? We’ve had to add it in.
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Hi Dale, How did your site cut go? Is your slab pour still good to go ahead early Feb? All the best.
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Hi, Our site cut has been completed and all the pre-slab ground work has been completed. Plumbing, Electrical and site clean/prep complete… but our neighbor has brought an issue into play. They haven’t and wont approve of our garage being built on the property boundary even though it has all the various building/planning approvals. They have brought the fencing act into play which states that if either party wants to complete works to the boundary fence then the other party must agree. Seeing as our build was to remove part of the fence for the garage wall we hit a dead end, with them clearly stating that they wouldn’t approve fencing works. The fence isn’t the actual issue though, their house is 90 degrees to ours on a large block about 20 meters back from our side boundary, meaning they sort of look directly at the garage wall and they are not happy about it because they have had 10+ years of empty block leaving an unobstructed view. A quick rejig of the plans and check of the site and Porter Davis can reduce the garage extension from 2m to 1.9m, taking 10cm from the overall width, allowing us to build inside the boundary fence and completely avoid any fencing act or further approvals from neighbor. Porter Davis probably should have provided a fencing notice to the neighbors (or informed us to do so) during the permit stages so we could have resolved it back then. It might not have changed the building outcome but we wouldn’t have been doing it on the fly during the construction. Oh well, at least we are progressing forward. 🙂
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Oh what a nuisance. We plan to build to the boundary with our garage as well however there are no existing houses either side yet being a new estate.
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The modwood was a building regulation ‘overlooking’ thing. Also have privacy glass in 1 bedroom and side window in another as well. We overlook our neighbours windows into habitable space… although they have a colourbond roof outdoor area covering those windows. We can’t see anything but rules are rules. We are the last vacant block in a development about 10 years ago with all houses full established now. Not sure what will happen after we move in. Maybe my kids will accidentally break those windows while playing in their rooms and I was unable to find privacy glass to replace it?!? And maybe the modwood will be attacked by special modwood loving termites and I’ll have to remove it for safety reasons?!?
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Haha. So many maybes…..accidents do happen.
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