The planning risk is in the use, not the joinery
You are rarely the one who needs the permit, but you are usually the one on site when it turns out one was needed.
Where Victoria catches people out
The client says planning is sorted
Often what is sorted is the lease. A change between defined use terms — a shop to a food and drink premises, a take away to a restaurant — is a planning question that a signed lease does not answer.
Seating is just furniture
A take away food premises may include up to 10 seats for consumption on site. The eleventh seat is a different use. Fitting out beyond that threshold puts the tenancy into a use it may have no approval for.
Signage goes on at the end
Business identification signage is controlled under Clause 52.05, and the controls vary by zone and by overlay. It is worth checking at quoting stage, not on the day the sign arrives.
What to use, and when
Planning Insight
$39Confirms which use the tenancy falls into and whether a permit is required, before your program depends on the answer.
Detailed Planning Assessment
$399+Where the client needs a permit and wants the application prepared properly rather than attempted twice.
Talk to a planner
On requestFor licensed premises, heritage shopfronts or a tenancy where the use question is genuinely unclear.
Getting started
A thirty-second check at quoting stage tells you whether the use is settled. It is the cheapest protection available on a fitout program, and it keeps the delay off your invoice.
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.