Demolition Permits & Council Approvals in Melbourne

What is actually required

For most demolitions you need two things that people constantly confuse:

**A demolition permit**, issued by a registered building surveyor under the Building Act. That is the approval to carry out the work.

**A report and consent under Section 29A**, issued by the council. This is the council's say on whether the building should come down at all, and the surveyor cannot issue the permit for a dwelling until it is in hand. It is not a volume test — it applies to removing part of a building as readily as all of it, which surprises people planning to take off a verandah.

Then, depending on the address, some combination of: a planning permit where a heritage, neighbourhood character or environmental overlay applies; an asset protection permit for the crossover, footpath and kerb; protection work notices to adjoining owners under Sections 84 to 87; a street tree protection plan; and a traffic management permit where a truck has to occupy the road.

Overlays are the thing that kills timelines

A Section 29A consent on a straightforward post-war brick house in an outer suburb is a modest piece of paperwork. The same application on a property inside a heritage overlay is a different animal — it can require a planning permit, a heritage consultant's report, and a decision timeline measured in months rather than weeks.

Melbourne has a lot of overlay. Inner-north terraces, established streets through the inner east, whole precincts across the older parts of the city. **Check the overlay before you sign a build contract**, not after — more rebuild programs come unstuck on this one point than on anything else, and checking costs nothing.

What we prepare and lodge

We assemble the application: forms, title documents and plan of subdivision, site plan, photographs, the surveyor's requirements, and the supporting material a particular council expects. Then we lodge it, pay the fees, respond to requests for further information, and chase it.

That last part matters. Applications sit. A polite, persistent follow-up with the right officer moves things that an email into a generic inbox will not.

Timelines, honestly

A straightforward Section 29A consent commonly runs two to six weeks depending on the council and its backlog. Add an overlay and a planning permit and you are looking at months. We will give you the realistic range for your council when we quote, and we will not tell you what you want to hear to win the job.