I assume that you are referring to a residential or retail bond.
No , it must be lodged with the bond board – it is required under the tenancy act for the protection of the tenant’s bond. It is the tenant’s money not yours.

Of course valuers should be held to account when they negligently prepare a valuation and disregard valid comparable sales evidence either accidentally or at the request of the client. However, when the market is skewed by unreported ‘side deals’ & cash-backs the valuer cannot be held to account for such market aberrations.

Many developers use 2 or 3 valuers for any project, then use the highest valuation to present to their bank.

Likewise when you shop around for an accountant, when you ask the question ‘what is 2 + 2?’ do you go to the accountant who answers ‘what do you want it to equal?’

Hmmm howabout the effect of reducing the solar power feed-in tarriff from 60 cents to 40 cents.a.

Stoopid question: where is the main switchboard? Is it outside the house/Unit in a main switchroom? Do you have access to it?

If you have your smarts about you, then turn off the power to your house/unit at the switchboard not the sub-board. (The main switchboard is where the electricity meters are and where the meter reader comes to check the power consumption).

Remove all of the cupboards leaving the one with the switchboard to last. Carefully remove the carcass – cut the back out with a jigsaw so you can get around the powerboard. If there is any damage to the board or wiring, then get the sparky.

Most tradies use cordless tools, so if they don't have power for a day or so it is not the end of the world.

is that on leasehold or freehold Jamie?

I use LBW @ Chatswood – good team. Probably a bit conservative.

Contact a local carpenter/builder.

Wolfy, you may need to check out a Canadian quantity surveyor's website to get some current budget rates for construction, obviously land cost will vary with zoning etc.

The cost of energy efficient technologies is still quite high compared to conventional systems so you may need to consider whether or not you are able to achieve a premium price in the market for having included such techonologies – the additional expenditure may be wasted if the area does not appreciate 'green design concepts'. do yourself a favour and watch a few episodes of a BBC production called 'Grand Designs' – there are several energy efficient homes using various techonologies which are more likely to be accessible/appropriate to the  Canadian scenario than the southern hemisphere.

the removal of Part 3a planning provisions in NSW when the government changed,

any preference for the area? North, south, east, west?