The planning question, answered inside the cooling-off period
Clients ask what they can do with the land. The vendor statement tells them what is registered, not what the planning scheme permits.
Where Victoria catches people out
The Section 32 covers it
It discloses what is registered and the planning certificate's headline controls. It does not tell your client whether they can build a second dwelling, extend, or subdivide — and that is the question they ask you after signing.
The covenant looks standard
A single-dwelling covenant defeats a development plan outright, regardless of zone. So can a Section 173 agreement. Both survive planning approval, and both are worth flagging before your client is committed rather than after.
An overlay is noted but no one reads the schedule
The overlay code is the headline. The schedule is what controls, and two councils with the same overlay letter can control quite different things — including works your client assumed were exempt.
What to use, and when
Planning Insight
$39Plain-English, client-forwardable answer for a specific proposal at that address, reading the actual schedules rather than the overlay names.
Certificate of Title & Plan
from $30Title, plan and dealings ordered directly, including the instrument behind a covenant or Section 173 agreement.
Detailed Planning Assessment
$399+When a purchase turns on a development outcome and your client needs a planner's written position.
Getting started
Free snapshot to triage, $39 Insight when the client has a specific plan, title when the answer might sit on the instrument rather than in the scheme. All three fit inside a contract timeframe.
General information about the Victoria planning system, not advice on a particular site. What applies to a property depends on its zone, the controls affecting it and what is proposed.