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When “Approved” isn’t “Approved”

July 8, 2020

You can have plans lodged with ACTPLA, you can have the magic red stamps on those plans showing “APPROVED”.  However when you go to sell, all that work will show up as unapproved if you don’t have a Certificate Of Occupancy.

Your electrician has to lodge his electrical certificate, your plumber has to lodge his paperwork on moving that toilet more than 30cm, and if your Certifier forgets to do one step in getting you that Certificate of Occupancy, you could be in trouble.  The ACTPLA red stamp is approval to proceed – not saying what you’ve lodged is approved.

(Note to ACTPLA: Can you change your red stamp to show “APPROVED TO PROCEED”? )

What you have is pre-approval – stamped at the “before you do anything” stage. The next steps must be documented to show you renovated / extended / knocked-down / rebuilt according to those plans and you then received a Certificate of Occupancy. That’s when “approved” really is approved.

Please note this is not building or town planning advice. It is based on what I have seen as an agent over the last decade with multiple owners showing me their plans with ACTPLA “approved” on them.  In all cases, it has resulted in retrospective certification prior to getting to the market, which has delayed sales campaigns by months and cost owners in excess of $3000 being paid to a certifier.

If ever in doubt, ring ACTPLA!