Building with Wisdom Homes

Called Campbelltown Council today to enquire where it was up to as has been 5 weeks since lodgement to find out it hasn’t even been allocated to an officer. Told assessment will take 12-14 weeks just for a double storey home. I cannot believe for an area that is in the middle of a construction boom that this Council appears to be operating on skeleton staff and doing the bear minimum. Really puts me off paying Council rates. Anyone experiencing this with their DA approval?

its happening across a lot of councils at the moment. I was talking to a friend yesterday and he has had a DA in for 26 months. completely insane which is why developers who can afford it, go straight to the land & Environment court after 42 days

26 months? That is ridiculous. What are they building? We are building your stock standard two storey home and I think 14 weeks is a joke.

They are building in Blacktown. I two DA's in at the moment, one in North Sydney i lodged in September and cant even get any correspondence out of Council. Councils are so understaffed and the staff they hire and the bottom of the class so things take ages, 14 weeks is fast these days, which is why the CDC SEPP was created.

Mish

At 42 days, unless they have asked for additional information which stops the clock, it becomes what is called a "deemed refusal".

That means by not acting on it, it has technically been refused and you can lodge an appeal with the Court. most developers go this route, but Council's know that home owners cant afford too so they just dawdle along at their own pace.

I am about to lodge a DA next week for 40 townhouses and we are already preparing to head to court as we cant wait that long.

Anyway, good luck

Thanks for that. Being a lawyer in a firm with a large conveyancing section, we might threaten with that and possibly go down that route.

Good idea, if you do lodge an appeal with the LEC, they have to go to a S34 negotiation, which at least gets them in the room to nut the DA conditions out

Councils are a complete joke in NSW at the moment

Mish

Also, if you need any help like the name of a good planning lawyer, or any construction related question, feel free to PM me. happy to help where I can

Cheers

Will do thanks