The technical approval issued by a building certifier once the drawings and engineering are done.
You have a decision notice from council in your inbox and you assumed that was the approval. Or you have no council application at all, because the extension sits inside the rules, and you cannot work out why a builder is suddenly asking about a certifier. Those are the same confusion, and it is the most common one in this whole process.
A Development Approval is council's permission for what you propose to do with the land. A Building Approval is the technical permission — structure, fire, waterproofing, energy, safety — assessed against the National Construction Code, and in Queensland it is almost always issued by a private building certifier rather than council. Different question, different decision-maker, different point in the program.
The order matters more than the names. A BA comes after the construction drawings and the engineering, because it assesses something that has to be fully described before it can be assessed at all. If you have budgeted the approvals as one line and one wait, you have budgeted for roughly half of them.
Council saying yes is not the same as anyone saying it can actually be built.
A DA is about whether you may; a BA is about whether it's built properly. They are different permissions, issued by different people, at different times, against different rules — and they are routinely confused. Nearly every project needs a BA, including many that need no DA.
The last gate. There is a particular relief in the permission that means work can actually start, distinct from the planning approval that only meant it wasn't forbidden.
The BA is discovered late, after the client believed the DA was the approval. Delay, cost, and occasionally a redesign because the approved scheme can't meet the technical requirements as drawn.
A DA is about whether you may. A BA is about whether it is built properly. Different people, different times, different rules, and the two get confused constantly, including by people who ought to know better. Nearly every project needs a BA, including plenty that need no DA at all. I explain this in writing and then again out loud at the point it matters, because the costly version of this misunderstanding is thinking the DA was the approval.
A Development Approval is a planning decision made by council against the city plan — height, setbacks, site cover, character, demolition, overlays. It answers whether you may. A Building Approval is a technical decision about whether the thing is built properly, assessed against the National Construction Code, and it covers structure, fire separation, waterproofing, energy and safety. They are different permissions, issued by different people, at different stages. Not every project needs a DA. Nearly every project needs a BA, including plenty that need no DA at all.
In practice almost every Brisbane house goes through a private building certifier. Certification was opened to private practitioners in Queensland years ago and it is now the normal route for residential work. The certifier assesses your drawings and engineering, issues the building approval, inspects at set points during construction, and issues the final certificate at the end. Worth knowing: the certifier is a statutory role, not your advocate and not the builder's. Their job is compliance with the code, not whether the design is any good or the price is fair.
It varies with the size of the job, its complexity, and how many inspections it needs, so ask for a written fee proposal rather than a rule of thumb. For orientation: in my guide, the whole authorities line — council fees, certifier, insurances, searches — sits at roughly three dollars in every hundred spent on a typical renovation. That share is higher on small jobs, because the paperwork for a modest extension is not much less than for a large one. Get the fee in writing and check what is excluded, particularly re-inspections.
Usually yes. Moving or adding fixtures generally triggers a separate plumbing and drainage approval through council, and it is a different application from both the DA and the BA. It is triggered by the pipework, not the tiling — so a bathroom that keeps its existing fixture positions and only changes finishes is a different proposition from one that shifts the toilet two metres. It is a small approval individually, but it has its own lodgement, its own assessment and its own inspections, and it is a common reason a program slips.
They are compliance certificates that a certifier collects. A Form 15 is a compliance certificate for building design or specification — typically from your engineer, confirming that a part of the design complies. A Form 16 is an inspection or aspect certificate, confirming that a particular part of the work was inspected and complies. A house build will accumulate a small stack of them from different consultants and trades, and the certifier needs them all before issuing the final inspection certificate. Keep copies yourself. They matter at resale and if a defect is ever argued.
If you would rather start small, the First Sketch Session is two hours at your place. You keep the sketches, and there is no obligation afterwards.