What is a section 10.7 planning certificate?
A section 10.7 certificate is issued by the local council under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) and sets out the planning controls affecting a property. It comes in two parts, and most contracts include only the first.
It was called a section 149 certificate until the Act was renumbered in 2018. Plenty of contracts, agents and templates still say 149. They mean the same document.
- 10.7(2) — the mandatory part. Zoning, what you may build, whether the land is flood-affected or bushfire-prone, whether it is affected by road widening or acquisition, and other prescribed matters. This must be attached to the contract.
- 10.7(5) — the optional part. Additional matters the council knows about and chooses to disclose, which can include things like contamination or landslip risk. Councils charge extra and it is NOT automatically included.
If your contract contains only the 10.7(2), there is a whole category of council knowledge you have not seen. Ask your conveyancer whether the 10.7(5) is worth ordering for this property — it usually costs tens of dollars and takes days, not weeks.
What buyers most often miss: the certificate reflects the council's records at the date of issue. It does not certify that the building complies, that approvals were obtained, or that what was built matches what was approved. Those are different questions, answered by different documents.
It also says nothing about the condition of the building. A property can be perfectly zoned, unaffected by flood, and still have the structural problems a building inspection finds.
What to ask
Copy these into an email. The people below can answer them; we can’t.
- To your conveyancer: does the contract include a 10.7(5), and if not, should we order one for this property?
- To your conveyancer: does anything in the certificate — flood, bushfire, road widening, acquisition — change what I can do with this property or what I should pay for it?
Want this found in your own documents?
Home Decoded reads your building, pest, strata and contract reports and pulls out what matters — with the exact quote and page behind every finding, so you can check it against the original.
Related
General information about what these documents say — not legal, building or financial advice, and not a substitute for your conveyancer, solicitor or licensed inspector. Law and practice change, schemes differ, and your contract may say something different from the general position described here.