Two products. One honest sequence.
1 · Decision Review & Appeal Prospects
- The council's decision, officer report and your plans read by a practising town planner
- Checked against the planning scheme and what the tribunal and permit register show for comparable matters
- A plain verdict on your prospects, with the reasons
- The recommended path: appeal, amend and reapply, negotiate, or stop
- Your review deadline confirmed from the notice
- Delivered in writing within 3 business days
2 · VCAT Application Pack
- Your application for review prepared and lodged with the tribunal
- The statement of grounds drafted and signed by our planner — you confirm it online before anything is lodged
- Grounds framed for your side: refusals and conditions for applicants; section 82 reviews for objectors, built to survive deemed-to-comply strike-out arguments
- A procedural roadmap: timelines, mediation and compulsory-conference expectations, what a hearing will need
- Your $990 Decision Review credited in full
VCAT’s lodgement fees are additional and payable to the tribunal. Hearing representation is quoted separately once the pathway is clear.
Common questions
It depends on your position. A permit applicant seeking review of a refusal (or of conditions) generally has 60 days from the decision. An objector seeking review of a council's decision to GRANT a permit generally has 28 days from the notice of decision. The date on your notice governs — upload it and we confirm your window as the first step of every order.
Ours are the prices on this page: $990 for the Decision Review & Appeal Prospects assessment, and $2,490 for the complete Application Pack (with the $990 credited if you proceed from one to the other — $2,490 total either way). VCAT's own lodgement fees are additional and payable to the tribunal. Hearing representation, if the matter runs to a contested hearing, is a separate engagement we quote once the pathway is clear. Most consultants and lawyers quote case-by-case; typical professional costs for a fully-run contested matter run well into five figures, which is exactly why knowing your prospects for $990 first is worth it.
Then you've bought exactly what the product promises: an honest professional answer before you spend serious money. The assessment sets out the reasons and the alternatives — amending and reapplying, negotiating conditions, a secondary consent, or stopping. A clear no, with a path forward, is a valuable outcome.
The Application Pack takes you to the point of a properly-lodged review with planner-signed grounds and a roadmap for what follows — which is where many matters settle through mediation or a compulsory conference. If your matter proceeds to a contested hearing, we act for clients at VCAT regularly and will quote that engagement separately once the issues are defined.
A practising town planner at Perry Town Planning (F. R. Perry & Associates Pty Ltd), Member of the Planning Institute of Australia. The firm has practised across Victoria since 1999 and appears at VCAT for both applicants and objectors.
Yes. Objector reviews under section 82 are core work for us, including framing grounds to survive the deemed-to-comply arguments developers increasingly run against objectors. The 28-day window from the notice of decision is strict, so start promptly.
Review windows stated are the general statutory periods; the date on your notice governs and extensions are at the tribunal’s discretion. Issued by F. R. Perry & Associates Pty Ltd, trading as Perry Town Planning.