In this 10-episode video series, Colin Fragar, our founder and CEO, shares the top ten things to know about achieving council approval.
Click on the “Play” button below to watch Episode 1 now:
Or for those that prefer to read, here is a transcript of the video…
Hi guys, Colin Fragar here from Council Approval Group. Today in the studio I was about to record a whole bunch of videos with tips and tricks on achieving council approval. But I actually realized that I just wanted to have a heart to heart talk. And I thought off set would be better, less formal.
We’ve done thousands of council approvals. We’ve done over 50 years and there’s almost nothing we haven’t seen. And so what we’ve done is we’ve documented and, if you haven’t already, please grab a copy of Your Ultimate Guide to Council Approval magazine. In here’s a whole bunch of tips and tricks. But on page number three, there is 10 things which people get blindsided with council approval. So after thousands of these projects, and having done over 10 plus myself, personally, I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly. And I just wanted to make sure that you don’t make those same mistakes, that you don’t get blindsided as well.
Mistake #1: Jumping Straight Into Plans
The first blind spot that we see that people aren’t aware of when they get into this game is that they they jump straight into plans. They have an idea like say they want to build a granny flat and extension. They want to do any sort of a project that they have in mind, so they jump straight into doing the drafting work and they get the plans done.The trouble with that is that you’re starting with the end before you start with the beginning. Because the mistake that people make is spending money on plans without knowing what your highest and best use is of the property, without knowing whether or not you can actually get the approval. In the end, probably 50% of the time people have wasted money.
First Step to Achieving Council Approval
The very first thing that you need to do is to take a step back, talk to a town planner. That’s what we are at the Council Approval Group. We have a whole bunch of town planners that do this every day of the week.We look at your property, we look at what the council rules are, what can we work within, and what room for departure is there, you may only be 10% off a minimum lot size, for example. And through expertise, we’re able to justify town planning arguments to depart from that which can literally mean hundreds of thousands of dollars.By doing what we call a Preliminary Planning Assessment, people can get the full picture before they jump in into the plans and the drafting and that sort of stage. So please, from somebody who’s done a lot of these myself and thousands for clients, don’t spend money on drafting, on architectural services, before you engage a town planner to fully look at your property.
If you haven’t already, book in for one of our appointments to speak to our team. So if you go to councilapproval.com.au you’ll see that there’s some free consults available. All it is a discussion about your property. We get to hear what you’re trying to achieve and then we work out a clear roadmap for you going forward.
My name is Colin Fragar. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you on the next video.