Subdivision Certifier or Council?

Subdivision development contains many approvals and it can seem daunting at first trying to determine who can issue what certificates. Knowing whether you must go to Council or whether you can use a Registered Subdivision Certifier, like Craig and the team at SubCerts, can prove to be valuable knowledge as this can save you months worth time waiting for approvals and infact be cheaper than Council in some instances!

Within a Development there are two main types of approvals:

• Consent - Which is can either be the Development Consent issued by Council or a Complying Development Certificate issued by a Registered Subdivision Certifier.

• Certificate - This can be the Construction Certificate, Occupation Certificate or Subdivision Certificate.

As a general rule, Development Consents are issued by Councils and Complying Development Certificates are issued by Registered Subdivision Certifiers.

For this blog we are going to focus on approvals which have consent via a Development Consent, or DA, from Council. If your development includes a building, once you have your DA you can go to a Registered Building Certifier for both your Construction Certificate, or CC, as well as you Occupation Certificate, or OC. From a building perspective you do not need to go back to Council either your CC or OC if you do not wish.

This isnt the case for subdivision, as your may wish to use a Registered Subdivision Certifier to issue your Subdivision Works Certificate, however if your development includes subdivision, specifically either Torrens title or Stratum title, then you are required to go back to Council to obtain your Subdivision Certificate. A Registered Subdivision Certifier can not issue a subdivision certificate for a development consent, or DA, that includes either Torrens or Stratum Subdivision.

The above may seem a bit complicated so I have constructed the below images which identify some typical types of development types, i.e land subdivision only, building and land subdivision, building only and have colour-coded who can issue what certificates and when that certificate can be issued. Please note this is general in nature and depending on your development the timing may change slighting, so I encourage you to contact Craig and the team at SubCerts to recieve advice your specific development.

If you would like a PDF copy of the documents below, which contains more helpful advice regarding subdivision developments, click on the contact us button to get into contact with Craig and the SubCerts team and we will send a copy through

Keep track of our socials for more information posts and more indepth looks into the subdivision development approval process and how Subdivision Certifiers and how Craig and the team at SubCerts can assist you.