Council must exercise discretion when deciding how to deal with unauthorised work and take into account the evidence, cost to the community, public policies, legal precedent and circumstances of each individual case.
 

Reporting

Please contact us if you suspect unauthorised work is taking place in your community.
 

Penalties

Enforcement action may include:

• Notices and Orders.
• Prosecution for criminal offences.
• Fines.
• Deeds of Settlement.
• Injunctions to restrain or remedy serious breaches (court orders).
• It is a criminal offence to breach environmental laws and large fines and prison sentences may apply.

 

Role of Council when a Private Certifier is appointed

When a private certifier is appointed as the Principal Certifying Authority (PCA) for a development, the PCA, and not Council, is responsible for conducting critical stage inspections and ensuring building and construction compliance in accordance with issued approvals. Council has a limited role in dealing with issues of compliance.

Private Certifiers are public officials and independent regulators of building construction and subdivision work. NSW Councils receive no funding or resources from the NSW government to regulate or audit the private certification industry.  Therefore Council will not intervene on a privately certified site, unless there is a significant threat to human life or safety or significant property damage or where the PCA has exhausted all options available to resolve the non-compliance.
 
Council has a legal obligation to direct resident enquiries to private certifiers and will continue to do so.

Any complaints relating to a development site should be directed to the relevant certifier who has been engaged to manage the site from the issue date of the approval through to the time an Occupation Certificate is issued.

Private certifiers have the power to issue a Written Directions Notice (WDN) to the owner or builder to comply with the conditions of consent or to rectify any breaches. A copy of the WDN issued by a private certifier must be provided to Council.

When a site is managed by a private certifier and a complaint has not been satisfactorily resolved, members of the public must lodge the complaint with NSW Fair Trading. Further links to information regarding Private Certifiers are outlined below:

• What Certifiers do.
• Finding and Appointing a Certifier.
• Complaints about Certifiers.

Further details about individual Certifiers can be found by the NSW Fair Trading website.
 

Illegal Boarding Houses

Boarding houses that do not comply with current legislative requirements pose a significant risk to life and/or property. Please advise Council if you suspect a property is being used as an illegal boarding house.

Further information on boarding houses can be found on the following Boarding House Fact Sheet:

• Boarding House Fact Sheet Final.
• Boarding House Fact Sheet-Chinese-translation.