Refinishing external appearance

Exemptions from approval for external refinishing of buildings such as changing roofing, rendering, adding brick veneer, painting

Exemptions from development and building approval may apply to certain external refinishing of buildings or structures provided they comply with relevant provisions of Regulations. Examples of external refinishing of buildings or structures include certain:

changing of roofing from tiles to metal sheet, or visa versa;
cement rendering of external bare-brick walls of a house;
adding of a brick veneer over external weatherboard wall cladding;
painting of a building to change its appearance, for example, from yellow to purple.

Exemptions from development approval

The development does not need development approval if it complies with relevant provisions of the Planning and Development Regulation 2008, Schedule 1. The following is a summary of the provisions and is correct as of the date the web page was last updated - scroll to the bottom of the web page to find this - however the Regulation's Schedule may been updated since then. In summary, the development is exempt provided that it includes replacing or covering an exterior item with the same or different material (for example, changing roof from metal sheet to tile) but only in connection with one or more of:

a wall, sill or fascia or an eave lining;
a downpipe or flashing or guttering;
trim;
roofing or a roof duct, flue, gutter or vent;
a vent pipe;
a step or landing;
a handrail or balustrade or other barrier that functions as a balustrade;
but does not include replacing or covering an external door, window, skylight or fence for an open space boundary;
also includes painting the exterior of the building or structure to change its appearance other than painting a design or sign on the exterior of the building or structure or painting the building for maintenance;

and complies with relevant general exemption criteria.

See definitions to understand the terms in italics.

Exemptions from building approval

No specific building approval exemptions apply. Certain external refinishing of buildings or structure may not consitute building work as defined under the Building Act 2004 and therefore would not require building approval.

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