What opening up changes
The NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure describes a risk based approach to development: the type of consent or approval you require, if any, depends upon the scale and potential impacts of your development, such as on traffic, noise, privacy and solar access, on adjoining properties. Three assessment pathways may apply to small residential development in New South Wales: exempt development; complying development; and development that requires consent from a consent authority, typically a council.
Exempt development asks for nothing at all, and it is drawn tight. The department describes it as minor development that will have minimal impact on the site and the surrounding neighbours or locality, requiring no consent or approval if it meets standards set in the State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008, the codes policy, or in your council’s local environmental plan. To be exempt development, the project must comply 100% with all of the relevant development standards, and a project that does not meet all of the standards for its particular exempt development type will need approval.
Complying development is the middle route, and a certificate is its instrument. The department describes it as a fast track and cost-effective approval process for routine development, including one and two storey homes, alterations and additions and outbuildings, where the work meets specified predetermined development standards listed in the codes policy. A complying development certificate can be granted by a council or an accredited certifier, who can advise further on the standards that would apply. The third route is a development application: a formal application for development that requires consent under the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, usually made to the local council with standard application forms, supporting technical reports and plans.
Among its internal jobs, the codes policy names the fitting of new or replacement insulation material in a ceiling, floor or wall, and minor internal alteration that is remedial work needed to repair or maintain a building, excluded where that work is on or in a heritage item. Both are what the policy calls development specified for this code.
The same three jobs, in two states
Two states’ rules are set out here. New South Wales decides the question in planning policy; Western Australia decides it inside building regulations. Its Building Regulations 2012, as at 1 October 2026, say a building permit is not required for building work of a kind described in the Table in Schedule 4 clause 2. That table’s renovation item applies only if every one of its conditions is met. The work must not adversely affect the structural soundness of the building or incidental structure, and must not include (i) an increase or decrease in its floor area or height, (ii) underpinning or replacement of footings, or (iii) the removal or alteration of any element that is contributing to the support of any other element; it must also be done using materials commonly used for the same purpose as the material being replaced; and the item sets further conditions after these, so read the whole item before relying on it.
| Jurisdiction | Non-structural wall | Bathroom refit | Deck |
|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | Where the work can be done as exempt development, it needs no planning or building approval, but only if it complies 100% with all of the relevant standards; if it does not, approval is needed. Alterations and additions can take the complying development route, certified by a council or an accredited certifier. | Complying development can be used for alterations and additions that meet the codes policy’s predetermined standards, certified by a council or an accredited certifier; whether a bathroom refit can instead be exempt development turns on the policy’s internal-alteration rules, which are not set out here. | Decks are named among the New South Wales department’s examples of exempt development, and its fact sheet for these structures sets a general requirement of no more than 25 square metres. If the development cannot meet all of the criteria or standards, you must get approval from the local council for a development application before the deck is installed. |
| Western Australia | A building permit is not required for renovation, alteration, improvement, repair or maintenance of a building or incidental structure only if every condition of item 2 in the Table in Schedule 4 clause 2 is met, among them that the work does not adversely affect structural soundness, does not change floor area or height, does not underpin or replace footings, does not remove or alter a supporting element, and is done using materials commonly used for the same purpose as the material being replaced. | The same item covers improvement, repair and maintenance as well as renovation and alteration, on the same conditions. | Not set out on this page. For a deck in Western Australia, take the question to the state’s building authority. |
For Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, this page does not set out the approval rules for these three jobs. Take the question to the state or territory’s own building or planning authority before the work starts.
The limits New South Wales puts on exempt development
Exempt development is not a blanket permission. The department says exempt and complying development cannot be carried out on certain land, and the exclusions it gives protect what a place already is: to protect the character of local heritage items, carports cannot be built in or on a local heritage item, and to protect foreshore and environmentally sensitive areas, driveways and hardstand spaces cannot be built as exempt development. If a heritage designation applies to only part of the lot, you may be able to carry out exempt development on the part of the land that is not affected by the listing.
Safety stays with the work, not with the approval. That guide is explicit: all exempt development works must comply with relevant provisions of the Building Code of Australia, and where no relevant provisions exist the works must be structurally adequate; exempt development works must not cause an existing building to contravene the code.
Three quieter conditions can still sit in front of a job that needs no consent. You must get the land owner’s approval to carry out any works on their land; covenants and legal agreements that apply to the land still apply, where the instrument was imposed or required by a local council, another environmental planning instrument, or an owner or former owner of the land; and before removing or pruning a tree, the department says to contact your local council first to check its tree preservation policy. If the development is close to infrastructure, including water, stormwater and sewer mains, electricity power lines and telecommunications facilities, the guide says to contact the relevant infrastructure authority before beginning, both within and beyond easements. Some works answer to other laws on top of the planning system: approval under section 68 of the Local Government Act 1993 is required for certain activities, including the placing of some structures in or over a public place, and building a kerb, crossover or driveway over a public road or footway will require an approval from the road’s authority under the Roads Act 1993.
What an approval does not tell you
An approval or an exemption answers one question: whether the work may go ahead. It says nothing about what the wall, the ceiling or the floor lining will release when it is cut, drilled or sanded, and in an older home that question comes first. The NSW Government’s page for working in pre-1980 built homes says: “If you're working on or in a pre-1980 built home, make sure to check if loose-fill asbestos insulation (LFAI) is present before starting or quoting work.” The Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency says a survey for asbestos should always be carried out before work on a renovation starts, and its guidance for householders gives the year to think in: a home built or renovated before 1990 might contain asbestos. Those checks have their own guides: Could my house have asbestos? and Loose-fill asbestos and the register.
Asbestos: the official minimum
- The Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency says: “It is not recommended that you handle or remove asbestos yourself”, and New South Wales and Western Australia set limits in law. In New South Wales a home owner may legally take out non-friable material covering less than 10 square metres themselves, but must take the same strict safety precautions as professional removalists, and any friable material, or more than 10 square metres, needs a licensed removalist. In Western Australia a home owner may remove non-friable material covering less than 10 square metres themselves but must follow strict safety precautions and wear personal protective equipment, and any friable material, or non-friable material over 10 square metres, must be removed by a licensed removalist.
- For a major home renovation where asbestos might be present, the agency’s advice is to engage a licensed asbestos removalist.
- Its fibres are dangerous to health once they are released into the air and breathed in, the agency says.
Never do these to asbestos material
- “Saw, sand, scrape or drill holes in asbestos materials”: one of the things Queensland’s renovating page says not to do.
- Clean it with high-pressure water or anything abrasive, such as scrubbing or sanding; the agency warns this can cause widespread contamination and an expensive clean-up.
All asbestos waste must go to a landfill site licensed to accept it, the agency says, and Safe Work Australia’s demolition code adds that it is moved and disposed of under your state or territory’s environment protection rules.
General information only; have a licensed assessor test before you cut.