The general rule
If you are changing the footprint of the building, changing its height, altering the roof structure, or doing anything structural, you need approved plans. If you are replacing what is already there with something similar in the same place, generally you do not.
That covers most cases. The grey areas are worth a specific conversation rather than a guess, because the cost of getting it wrong is not a fine, it is a problem at transfer.
Usually needs approved plans
These change the building itself, so the municipality has an interest in them.
- Any extension that increases the footprint
- A second storey or any added height
- Converting a garage into habitable space
- A granny flat or separate-entrance unit
- Enclosing a patio or carport into a room
- Removing or altering a load-bearing wall
- Changes to the roof structure or pitch
- Swimming pools, and boundary walls above the permitted height
Usually does not
These stay inside the existing envelope and do not change the structure.
- Replacing a kitchen or bathroom in the same position
- New flooring, plastering, tiling and painting
- Replacing windows and doors in existing openings, same size
- Re-covering a roof with an equivalent material on the same structure
- Removing a wall that carries nothing
Why unapproved work catches up with you
It rarely bites during the build. It bites when you sell. A conveyancer or a buyer's bond assessor asks for approved plans, the plans do not match the house, and suddenly the sale is conditional on a rates clearance and an as-built submission you have to do under time pressure.
Retrospective approval is possible and it is always more expensive and slower than doing it up front, because you may have to open up finished work to prove what is underneath.
Insurance is the other reason
If unapproved structural work contributes to a loss, your insurer has a defensible reason to decline the claim. That is a low-probability, high-consequence risk to take on your largest asset.
How long approval takes
It varies by municipality and by how complete the submission is. Most of the delay that homeowners experience is not the council queue, it is submissions bouncing back for corrections and going to the back of it.
The fix is a complete, coordinated drawing set with the engineer's input already in it. It feels slower at the start and is usually faster overall.
Written by Edward Whelan, Spoednik Construction · Updated August 2026
