Frequently Asked Questions

A Construction Certificate comes after a Development Application has been approved. It verifies that your construction plans comply with the Building Code of Australia and with every condition Council attached to the DA.

A Complying Development Certificate replaces the DA entirely. It is a separate approval pathway for projects that meet state planning codes exactly.

The practical difference is who decides. A DA is assessed on merit, which involves Council judgement. A CDC is non-discretionary: the requirements are objective, and if your project meets them it qualifies. That rigidity is what makes it faster.

It depends entirely on whether your project fits the State Environmental Planning Policy codes exactly. If it does, CDC is usually faster because there is no merit assessment. If it deviates even slightly, you need a DA.

This is worth checking before you commit to a design rather than after. We run a preliminary assessment against the relevant SEPP and tell you which pathway is open, what the rules require, and what still needs doing. Finding out at the formal application stage is what causes delays.

Before anyone occupies or uses the building. The Occupation Certificate is the final document and it confirms two things: that the completed works match the approved Construction Certificate or CDC, and that the building is suitable to occupy.

It is issued once all the mandatory critical stage inspections are done, the required documentation is in, and the fire safety measures are satisfied. Until it is issued you cannot open. That makes it the item most likely to hold up a handover date, which is why the inspections leading up to it matter more than people expect.

Yes, every project with a Construction Certificate or CDC needs one appointed before work starts. The Principal Certifier is legally responsible for the inspection regime on your project.

We act as Principal Certifier: conducting the mandatory critical stage inspections, checking the work matches the approved certificate and the BCA, and issuing the Occupation Certificate at the end. Appointing the same certifier who assessed your plans means nobody is coming to the project cold.

It is the highest class of registration a building surveyor can hold in New South Wales. Unrestricted means the class itself is not capped by building type or size, unlike the restricted classes below it.

Restricted classes are capped, which is why some projects get partway through and then need a different certifier. Falcon holds Unrestricted registration, BDC2213, which you can check on the NSW Building Certifiers Register. Individual projects can still carry their own referral requirements, for example a Fire and Rescue NSW report on certain class 2 to 9 buildings, and we manage those as part of the process.

A BCA report is a detailed analysis of your architectural plans against the prescriptive requirements of the Building Code of Australia, specifically the Deemed-to-Satisfy provisions. It tells you where the design complies and where it does not.

As early as possible, and ideally before the Development Application is lodged. Construction Certificate stage is too late. By then a non-compliance usually means a redesign and a Section 4.55 modification back to Council, which costs time the programme rarely has.

Ironing out the Building Code matters before the DA goes in is how you avoid that altogether.

You do not necessarily have to redesign. Where the prescriptive requirements are impractical or cost-prohibitive, a Performance Solution can achieve the same safety and performance outcome by a different route.

A Performance Solution is prepared by a consultant engaged by the owner or builder, a fire safety engineer or an access consultant, who does the analysis and signs the report. As your certifier, our role is to assess it: to check it genuinely meets the NCC Performance Requirements, question the assumptions, ask for changes, and accept it into the approved design once we are satisfied. Where the solution concerns fire safety, we also manage the Fire and Rescue NSW referral.

A certifier cannot write a Performance Solution and then approve it on the same project, because that would mean certifying their own design. Keeping the two roles separate is what makes the approval worth anything. It is how unusual buildings get built.

Yes. We prepare fire safety schedules, advise on essential fire safety measures, and provide fire safety upgrade advice for existing buildings.

Our director spent eighteen months with the NSW Building Commission auditing compliance under the Design and Building Practitioners scheme, from the regulator's side of the table rather than the applicant's.

A Building Information Certificate is a document from Council confirming it will not take action to repair, demolish or alter a building for a set period. People generally need one when buying a property with unapproved work, or when regularising something that was built without approval.

Council will usually ask for a compliance audit of the building as part of that application. That audit is work we do.

A compliance audit is an assessment of an existing commercial or industrial building against the Building Code, confirming where it currently stands. It covers tenant fit-outs and changes of use as well as whole buildings.

The common triggers are due diligence before a property purchase, a leasing agreement, insurance requirements, or a Building Information Certificate application. The output identifies clearly which areas need regulatory upgrade, so you know what you are buying or leasing before you commit rather than after.

Your approved Development Application and its conditions, and your construction documentation: architectural plans, and the relevant engineering and specialist consultant reports.

We review that documentation against the Building Code, the legislation and the DA conditions. Where something is missing or non-compliant we tell you what specifically is required rather than simply rejecting it.

Across the Northern Rivers, Clarence Valley and Coffs Harbour. Our office is at Unit 3c/19/21 Coldstream St, Yamba NSW 2464.

For projects outside that area, ask. Distance is not automatically a barrier, it just needs to make sense for the inspection regime the project requires.