Developer obligations when working on regulated buildings

Developers must create a developer account on the NSW Planning Portal in order to lodge documents and make payments.

Note: If you have an existing applicant account on the NSW Planning Portal, you can add a developer account without creating a new account.

Watch an overview video of the end-to-end process for developers to meet the legislative requirements for designs and building works on the NSW Planning Portal. This video includes submitting an expected completion notice, paying the building work levy and the strata building bond.

For questions related to lodging documents on the NSW Planning Portal:

• Phone: 1300 305 695
• Submit an enquiry via a webform
• Email: information@planning.nsw.gov.au

Before building work starts, a developer must nominate the building practitioner, design practitioner and principal certifier working on the development. This is done on the NSW Planning Portal.

Developers are required to enter the building work commencement date prior to the building works commencing on the NSW Planning Portal. The option to submit the building work commencement date will only be available after a Complying Development Certificate (CDC) or a Construction Certificate (CC) has been issued. 

A developer with building work that is approaching completion must give notice of the date the building is expected to be completed and their plan to apply for an occupation certificate.

Notice must be given at least 6 months, but no more than 12 months, before applying for an occupation certificate.

Some building work may be completed in less than 6 months. If at the commencement of building work, a developer expects to apply for an occupation certificate in less than 6 months, they must submit the expected completion notice within 30 days of building work commencing.

Giving notice allows time for a review of the building development, including a possible occupation certificate audit, to identify any serious defects before the building is completed and buyers settle their contracts.

There can be serious consequences if notice is not provided, including fines and a prohibition order that delays the occupation certificate being issued.

Building Commission NSW may choose your building work for an audit. This will prevent the developer from applying for an occupation certificate. The developer will be notified if the building work has been chosen for an audit.

Read more about lodging a notice of intended completion of building work. 

The building work levy must be paid before an application for an occupation certificate for a regulated building class (currently class 2, 3 and 9c buildings).

The levy applies to the following types of building work:

• new buildings
• addition of storeys to existing buildings (resulting in an extra 5 or more residential premises). This could be a staged development with multiple construction certificates, or an extra floor being added to an existing building
• repair, renovation or remediation work valued over $150,000 for buildings only in class 2.

Building work on existing class 3 and 9c buildings will be exempt from the building work levy until 1 July 2026.

The trigger for the payment of the levy starts when an expected completion notice (ECN) is submitted as part of the intention to seek an occupation certificate process (ITSOC). The person who submits the ITSOC is liable to pay the levy.

Read more about paying the building work levy. 

Under the Strata Building Bond and Inspections Scheme (SBBIS), developers of new eligible apartment buildings 4 storeys or higher must pay a building bond to Building Commission NSW equal to 2% of the total price paid or payable of all contracts for the building.

Read more about the Strata building bond & inspection scheme (SBBIS).