Gregory hills parklands release

Hi,

Anyone building in gregory hills parklands release has come across bal rating that needs to be reassessed? I bought lot 979 unfortunately has a bal rating of 40 which is quite high even though i don't have any trees for about 30m in front of my land? Does anypne know what have to do to reduce the rating? Thanks

That rating wouod have been done as part of subdvision, I assume its in the 88B instrument and a positive covenant on your title?.RFS woukd have been consulted as part of that process, the distance is not everything, its got to do with the type of vegetation and slope. Only thing with that rating isnyou cant do it as a CDC. House needs to be approved as DA through Council. Project builders make jt sound harder and costlier than it is.

A BAL 29 house is very close to a BAL 40, main difference is windows.

Yup but with whichever builder I have spoken the bal rating allowance is an extra $30k which is an extra cost I would really love to get rid off. I have tried the Camden council who have asked me to try self assessment tool on RFS website unfortunately land address doesn’t exist on it. Using AS3959-2009 I can see the bal rating is too high but don’t know how I can present it to RFS. The other option is using bal rating consultants but not sure if that would help.

You can use the residential dwelling kit, its just a form from the RFS, not the online one. Print it out and make your assessment, unless things have changed. A bushfire consultant can make the same assesment like you mentioned, there are two options,, the cheaper one is just the bal certificate, where they just determine the highest bal affectation, i.e, Bal 29.(around 660 bucks)

The other one is a full report.


If you have read the standard, you will see that there is little difference in construction from say bal 29 and 40 apart from glazing. Not sure if the cost will be any less. Anyone else built next to you? You can always get a copy of their documentation to see what they did from Council its called a GIPAA request.

You are correct not much difference between bal 29 and 40 but a big gap in pricing from the builders not sure why. I will try residential dwelling kit thanks for the information. Looking at the lots beside mine some of the owners seem to have already started, they probably did not question the bal rating. I was hoping to connect with them by coming on homeone but so far no luck.

Yep, figured as much, I can understand costs associated with Glazing thickness, but it's like they are charging 10k just to wrap a brick veneer house with sarking and covering weep holes and joints with mesh etc.

Hopefully you can get the rating reduced, having houses around you can also reduce the rating.

yeah mate i hope so too, i have read of instances the bal rating did go down so yeah fingers crossed. i'll post what happens once i submit it to NSWRFS. thanks mate.

Just an update i have been advised that bal rating on my lot have gone down to bal12.5 which according to the builder is saving of $30000.

Awesome mate!

Yup excellent news gives me a bit of relief. Thanks for your advise mate i will keep updating this forum on how construction goes.