The DPU is gone. Here’s what replaced it.
A small second dwelling of 60 m² or less needs no planning permit in Victoria’s residential zones. That is a real exemption and a real opportunity — but it is narrower than most quotes assume.
Stop quoting the dependent person’s unit
The dependent person’s unit — the DPU, under Clause 52.18 — was deleted by Amendment VC253 in December 2023. It is not a current pathway, and describing a job that way dates the quote and invites the wrong questions from council.
What replaced it is materially better for your customer. The DPU was tied to a dependent occupant and was meant to be removed when that need ended. The small second dwelling carries no such condition — it is an ordinary second dwelling, kept under a floor area ceiling.
What the exemption covers
A small second dwelling of 60 m² gross floor area or less needs no planning permit in the residential zones, under Amendment VC243 (12 December 2023). The provision sits in the zones themselves — Clause 32.08-2 in the General Residential Zone, 32.09-2 in the Neighbourhood Residential Zone.
What it never covers
A building permit is always required. The exemption is from planning only, and the two approvals answer different questions. A build can need no planning permit at all and still fail a building surveyor.
What still puts a permit back on the job
The exemption is about the zone. Everything below sits outside it, and any one of them is enough.
Any overlay on the land
Heritage, bushfire, flooding, significant landscape, vegetation, design and development. The zone exemption does not switch an overlay off — this is the most common reason a job the customer was told needs no permit turns out to need one.
Green Wedge and Rural Conservation zones
The exemption is a residential-zone provision. In the Green Wedge and Rural Conservation zones a permit is required, and that catches a lot of semi-rural blocks people assume are covered.
Going over the floor area
Above 60 m² gross floor area it is simply a second dwelling on the lot, assessed under Clause 55 with a permit — a different job at a different price.
Removing vegetation
Clause 52.37 (Canopy Trees, VC289) and Clause 52.17 (Native Vegetation) apply independently, as do VPO/SLO/ESO schedules and council Local Law. Backyard builds routinely need a tree out to get access.
A restriction on title
A single-dwelling covenant prohibits outright what the planning scheme permits. It is not varied by the exemption, and it is the one thing that stops the job dead.
A second dwelling eats garden area — a pool doesn’t
Worth knowing because it catches people out. Minimum garden area is a mandatory zone control (Clause 32.08-4 in the General Residential Zone, 32.09 in the Neighbourhood Residential Zone, 32.07 in the Residential Growth Zone) with no discretion to reduce it — 25% on lots of 400–500 m², 30% on 501–650 m², 35% above 650 m². Lots of 400 m² or less are exempt.
Garden area counts every open, non-building part of the lot, so a pool or a paved courtyard counts toward it. A second dwelling is a building, so it comes off it. Where the project needs a permit for any other reason — an overlay, or a floor area above the ceiling — the new building has to leave the minimum intact, and on a tight lot that is the constraint that decides the footprint.
Check the address before you quote
Whether the exemption actually applies is a function of the land, not the design. The free snapshot returns the zone and every overlay. Where something applies, the $39 Planning Insight reads the schedule for that lot and tells you what it controls.
General information about the Victorian planning system. What applies to a particular lot depends on its zone, the overlay schedules affecting it, any restriction on title and the works proposed.