In this video, Colin Fragar, our founder and CEO, shares how you might be able to build a granny flat without council approval and his preference for achieving granny flat approval.
Click on the “Play” button below to watch now:
Or for those that prefer to read, here is a transcript of the video…
So how do you build a granny flat without council approval? My name is Colin Fragar from Council Approval Group.
Now, this is a really important question, actually one that you don’t want to get wrong. If your end game is to end up demolishing the granny flat at the end of the day, then perhaps you can go ahead and build that without approval. Unfortunately, I know that this happens around Australia a lot.
And the reason I know is that people do these garage conversions into a granny flat. They build these structures in the backyard that the good, well-meaning individual has done on bad advice, usually from the builder or provider. There’s just a lot of dodgy providers out there in Australia that are advertising these prefabricated granny flats which don’t need council approval. The answer, my friend, is that you do need approval.
Granny Flat Approval through Certifier or Council Approval?
I just want to go into detail though and qualify that. So there are limited circumstances when technically council approval isn’t needed. However, approval is still needed. And what am I talking about? I’m talking about the private certification process. So in certain jurisdictions, you can shortcut the council approval process by not going to Council for the approval. However, this does occur only in limited jurisdictions, in limited zones, and in limited cases. And you’ve got to be 100% compliant, otherwise, you won’t get it across the line.What we usually find though, is that for a little bit of extra effort, maybe an extra two weeks in the process of preparation, getting a council approval is actually more valuable for the individual than getting the certifier to do it.For one it’s hard to find a good private certifier. Then, even if you can find the good private certifier, there’s almost as much work, if not more work, to get the approval in place than going through the council. Now, that, of course, depends on the jurisdiction.
Some people will tell you they advertise that you can get certifier to do it in a quicker approval process. And keep in mind, you can use the council as the certifier. But my experience has been, having done thousands of these for clients and also many for myself as well, is that it may be better for us to do it as a council approval. Regardless, I hope that I’ve helped to answer the question can you build a granny flat without council approval.
Take the Next Step
So if you would like us to answer that question in more depth, I recommend two things. First of all, Your Ultimate Guide to Council Approval. This is a magazine which we’ve put together which we can mail out to you. It has a lot of tips and tricks in here about whether you need an approval to get a granny flat. The second thing that I would highly recommend to you is please give us a call or book in for an appointment to speak to one of our consultants. We offer you an opportunity to speak to us for 30 minutes to unpack what you’re trying to achieve and then give you a clear roadmap going forward.My name is Colin Fragar from Council Approval Group and I wish you every success.