Duplex Process

Hi Viral,

It’s completely up to you where you go from here. Yes you are correct in indentifying planners as a first point of call along with listing building companies as an option. In my experience the big builders are generally a lot of trouble and hassle (plus they don’t pay their tradies much so there is some compromise in quality).

Essentially at the beginning you’re best off approaching a surveyor or a planner. They work in conjunction with each other so doesn’t really matter which one you contact first. Also consider using the Surveyor / Draftsman combo as that is probably cheaper than what your planner quoted you to get DA approved + designs. Architects are another option but they’re generally pretty expensive. You’ll need all the existing conditions on site measured, buildings, trees, services, contours etc before you have anything designed, which is why surveyors are the first people on the site. Planners can only get so much information from aerial photos, land.vic.gov, aerial contours and such.

Good luck with the project!

Cheers,

Hi Viral,

That would depend on council if they require detailed plans to be submitted with the permit application. I would expect that for a duplex development this would be fairly Australian-wide (as It’s the case with councils around my area). To confirm this I would give the council’s planner a call and see what they think about it.

I would also check their flexibility with design. As long as you’re not changing the setbacks from the road and the side boundary there wouldn’t be any issues with small design changes. For example if the original design was 2m off the side boundary and then you decided to put it on the title boundary this would cause issues.

Submitting an application for planning really isn’t all that difficult, it’s just a couple of forms. Many of the projects I undertake the clients rather submit this themselves. If your planner is charging you significantly for this I wouldn’t worry about him doing it. Call around a few draftspeople and see what prices they can give you on a design for the new dwelling and also ask for some examples of their work. I’m sure you’ll get significantly better than 13k.

Also to note $900 for your site survey is very cheap (which I assume was a basic Feature and Level). Some councils require a Site Analysis on top of this (sometimes called Neighborhood Description Plan). So there is the probability that additional works are needed before submission. Check this with your council also.

Cheers,