After 6 months of admin stuff like soil test and site costs which took 3 months the plans took 10 weeks
A problem with the bank as there was a stuff up by the agents when we purchased the land a name was spell wrong so we had to pay 150 to have it fixed as the bank would not lend the money

Yesterday we approve the plans and the contract should be ready to sign next week
and the week after that into council for around 6 to 8 weeks
and then 18 weeks to build
all up will be around a year
So I am getting excited now but still a long away to go
I after to said I am a little bit scare about the build process its the un certained on it now doing until they start diging if their will be any extra charge rock etc.

Excellent, good luck with everything! It's such a wonderful process

Hi Yvette,

Congrats on getting to this stage! I think it gets easier once they start building!

Matt

Another story of long, painful wait for council approval...
You might want to ask around and see what's the normal period required for council approval in your area...

Ours took 4 months to approve, with one request for further information about retaining wall and shadow issue with neightbour's property.

One of our friend's application took more than a year, knocked back a few times for major changes due to neighbour complaining the front of the house is too high. They have to change the drawing a few times,, drop about 1 m for front porch and living room. And our poor friend spent extra $20K.

Hope you have some nice, reasonable neighbours!

Cheers
Allan
http://building-our-first-house.blogspot.com/

I'm really shocked about how long council approval has taken for you. Mine was processed through and approved within 14 days. I'm shocked (although not suprised with some of the stories I have read) that there could be that much of a difference from council to council.

It is up to the builder in a lot of ways.
When my builder submitted the paperwork to the council they already knew from previous experience with this council that the house would be approved with 2 exceptions which would require dispensations.

So they immediately got a conditional permit subject to those dispensation within 14 days or so, and then submitted a report for the dispensations. That took 3 weeks.

The builder needs to know whether that particular design would meet council's expectations. If not, it could waste a lot of your time.

council times we have been told are between 4 to 8 weeks but have spoken to a few people around 10 weeks.we Donot have any neighbours on 5 acres so there should not be any problem with neighbours.
Got the contract on saturday sending back monday now we have to wait for the bank to do their thing and give the builder the deposit. another 3 to 4 weeks we were told but I will say 6 weeks.There is a lot of waiting and then into council

Where in Queensland are you Yvette? I am in Brisbane and ours took 13 days in council. Although apparently it is an extra two weeks if you have a biocycle. Our builder told us that a lot of builders aren't ready to start building so they don't actually put the plans into council for a while - then they tell the client that it is held up in council. That was the case for my sister-in-law. Theirs took 3 months for approval.

That is ridiculous - I have heard of discrimination before... but an extra 2 weeks in council if you own a bicycle... that is just nuts. And anyway how do they know if you have one? Have they got special bicycle inspectors

biOcycle!

Errr - sorry Parker, yes I know... it was supposed to be a joke...

OK, sorry. The smiley combo at the end was what made me think you might have been serious. Perhaps a , , or

I am in the gatton shire and we will have a biocycle that need up costing $4,000 more because of council requirements

story so far

dec 6 purchased our land

dec 12 paid $1000 to get thingd started with perry homes
feb 12 soil test etc back
april 12 tender finally done paid another $1000
june 19 signed the contract paid another $700 for affulent report
july 10 bank given their final approval now we have to wait for the contract and then they are paying the deposit

It has been a vey slow thing they have looking at finishing anywhere between dec and feb
so its around 12 to 14 months to build
Any now the place we are renting is no the market as well the land lord has decided to let us out of the lease as he seems to think we should be home all the time so people can look at this house But we do go to work.He arrived on our door steep on sunday to agrue with us amount very thing.
He has broken the tenant agreeement by turning up with out notice.

To date

2 august today was the settlment of the building loan so we are ready to go
Perry should get there starting deposit Monday so it can go into council at last
Was told by council anything from 2 days to 14 days at the momment due to a slight down turn in the building of new homes I think it down about 4%

13 August still waiting for the bank to pay the deposit to the builder bank said today.It seems the builder did have all the right paperwork for the bank even thought the bank send a fax on the 3 august so we still wait

another stuff up perry didnot get there deposit from bank until last monday afternoon pery didnot send the bank the necessary paper work even thought the bank sent fax on 2 august detailing what they need anyway.we were told it went to the private certifier last friday so over a week ago now.

at last it looks like we will be up and running the plans were approvAL ON 5 SEP.The supervisor out today and they will start digiing etc on thursday so they tell us we have been waiting over 10 months the house was to be finished oct 07 but now next year the whole thing has been very disapointing

bank paid on 7th august
council approval 5sep

they didnot start work until nov

dec 14 we have the slab,frame up and roof almost on they didnot order enough iron so we have to wait

due to xmas we will have 3 weeks of nothing
we were to be in by oct 2007 not march 2008

According to a friend working for a council, the council approval normally depends on whether you're building in an established area or a new estate. The newer the estate, the faster the approval period. Our just took a week, because it's a new estate.