For building surveyors: what happens after you say 'that needs report and consent'

Every relevant building surveyor has the conversation weekly: the garage, carport or extension doesn't meet a Part 5 siting provision, the building permit can't issue without the council's report and consent, and the owner — who has never heard the phrase before — asks what happens now.

What happens now is, too often, this: the owner (or their draftsperson) fires a two-page letter at the council, the council refuses it, nobody tells the owner a 30-day appeal clock started on the refusal, and six weeks later the surveyor is fielding an angry call about a stalled permit that was never the surveyor's to fix. We know, because those owners eventually reach us — in one recent matter, seven weeks after refusal, with the section 144 appeal window already closed and only the harder roads left.

This article is about the version where it goes well.

The structural problem with the DIY application

Report and consent under regulation 74 and its Part 5 siblings is a genuine discretion, exercised against Ministerial Guideline MG-12 — and MG-12 has a structure most applicants never engage: three mandatory criteria (streetscape, building envelope, neighbourhood character consistency), plus at least one of six alternatives (allotment shape, slope and site conditions, prevailing setbacks, solar access, vegetation). The council must refuse if a mandatory criterion isn't made out.

A DIY application typically asserts none of this. No measured streetscape survey, no engagement with the planning scheme's character statements, no identification of which alternative criterion the site actually satisfies. The refusal that follows isn't council being difficult — it's a delegate given nothing to approve on. And the quality bar isn't high on the other side of the counter either: we've seen a refusal issued with the assessment criteria for the wrong regulation annexed to it.

The surveyor can't fix this, and shouldn't try. Preparing advocacy to a reporting authority sits awkwardly with the RBS's statutory role, consumes unbillable hours, and puts your independence in the frame if the matter later turns contentious. The referral exists so it doesn't have to.

What a well-run referral looks like

Refer at "consent required", not at "consent refused". The application prepared properly the first time — MG-12 criteria addressed in order, the prevailing setbacks measured rather than asserted, the site's constraints (shape, easements, crossovers, the parking the dwelling is left with) framed against the alternative criteria, concessions and landscaping offered up front — is dramatically cheaper than the appeal that follows the application prepared badly. Send us the siting assessment, the plans, and the regulation numbers that fail; we take it from there and keep you informed, because the output unblocks your permit.

If it's already refused, the calendar is the advice. An appeal to the Building Appeals Board under section 144 must be commenced within 30 days of the decision — and the Board hears the matter afresh, unbound by the council's reasons or by MG-12 itself. A refusal referred to us in week one is a strong appeal; the same refusal in week five is a scramble; in week seven it's a section 160 application or a fresh council application, both slower and costlier. If a client mentions a refusal, the single most valuable thing a surveyor can say is the date it was notified.

The window's closed? Still refer it. Section 160 gives the Board an original jurisdiction to modify the application of the Regulations to the particular building work, and a redesigned fresh application to council remains open. We run both — they reward preparation and speed.

Why surveyors refer to us specifically

We sit on the planning side of the fence the reporting authority sits on: the character statements, the local policies and the streetscape evidence that decide these discretions are our daily material, and we appear at the Building Appeals Board — for report and consent appeals and in its protection works jurisdiction, where many of you already refer parties. We don't do building surveying, we don't compete with your practice, and the client comes back to you with an unblocked permit and a better opinion of everyone involved.

The referral costs your client a fixed, quoted fee and costs you an email: plans, siting assessment, failing regulations, and the refusal date if there is one.

Perry Town Planning runs report and consent applications and Building Appeals Board proceedings across Victoria. Refer a matter — or read the owner-facing explainer on the 30-day clock to hand to a client whose refusal has already landed.