Dear Customers

As we welcome the Spring to Melbourne, we see an increased number of Demolition Projects coming our way and in case you didn't know - we are not just a Skip Bin Hire company but we also offer Demolition Services to our Melbourne customers, namely of residential properties, up to two stories high.

Understanding the process is critical as some builders do not include Demolition in Your Building Contract and leave the demolition up to the customer to organise.  We've compiled below a list of top 5 Steps to Take to Prepare Your House for Demolition.

Step 1 - Contact Your Local Council For Consent Form

Depending on which City Council your property is located in, you can most likely apply online or might need to pay a visit to your local council for the Consent Form, also referred to as Section 29A.  Council effectively needs to consent to the demolition, prior to you even applying for the Demolition Permit. In some circumstances consent might not be given if the building is considered a heritage building or under some sort of other cultural or historical significance.  In other circumstances, there could be a consideration of Aboriginal Heritage Site, which the council would advise you on and any steps required for futher assessment.

While you are visiting the council on a matter of Consent Form, we recommend at the same time to apply for an Asset Protection Permit.  Again, it could be done over the phone, online or via personal visit.  Depending if there are COVID-19 restrictions for visiting the council, we always recommend to call them first to ensure that you gather all the relevant documentation first, prepare the payment and only make one trip to council if it can't be resolved via the electronic means.  Please note that Asset Protection requires a payment of a Bond, which could be a few thousands of dollars, depending on the property, however once your building project is completed, don't forget to contact the council to request the release of the bond back to your banking account.  As the building process can take a while, its a good idea to maintain an excel spreadsheet with all your payments and reminders in a calendar of important rebates, such as Asset Protection Bond.

Step 2 - Obtain Soil Report

Soil Report is one of the important documents that you need to submit to your Demolisher in order to apply for a Demolition Permit. A soil test is taken by a Geotechnical Engineer, in order to analyse the types of soil on your land.  They take various soil samples and will establish what soil is doing at various depths on your site.  This information will establish the "reactivity" of your soil, meaning how much it will expand or move and what type of foundation is best, based on your soil type.

This information will be critical for your structural engineer, to design the correct structure of your house, foundation, footings and slab.  The Geotechnical Engineer would usually refer to your proposed design, so that he will know where on a site to take the samples of the soil. A very interesting article on the importance of Soil Report and potential mistakes home owners make, can be found here.

Step 3 - Submit Property Title & Rates Notice

While you are waiting from the council to respond to you on the above two steps, you can start obtaining the copy of your Property Title and the most recent Council Rates Notice and email both to your Demolisher. These two documents are also essential in order for your Demolisher to apply for the Demolition Permit.  If for some reason you don't have a copy of your Property Title, it can be easily ordered online at a very low cost, from the Property Registry Website.

Step 4 - Obtain Tree Removal Permits

As part of your Building Design, you would have obtained an Arborist Report, provided if you have any vegetation on your existing site.  Based on your arborist report - it will be evident if some trees will require a tree removal Permit.  The rules might slightly vary from council to council, we will give an example from our local council - City of Bayside, which has a comprehensive guide on the top 3 reasons why you might require a permit to remove a tree or vegetation from your property.

Three Situations Where You Might Need A Vegetation Removal Permit

1. Your property might have an existing planning permit, heritage overlay or significant landscape overlay
2. The Vegetation is Native or is located in the VPO3 area (Vegetation Protection Overlay) area, which can be found from your council's website
3. Conflict with other trees on private property.  Various variables come into this category, such as number of trunks and circumferance of trunks a tree on a property might have, whether the tree or trees are registered in the Significant Tree Register or is planted in accordance with the replacement planting condition

Step 5 - Organise Disconnection of Essential Services

The timing of this important step might be influenced on whether the property is currently occupied or not.  In case where property is already vacant, this step can be approached at the same time as step one and sometimes it might take a while to abolish all the services to the property.  In case where property is occupied, whether by your family or your tenants, the timing could be tricky as you need to effectively move out prior to disconnecting electricity and water services.  If your circumstancds fall into the later category, we recommend to contact your Gas and Electricity Providers and discuss how long it actually takes them to abolish all services to your property, so that you can plan your moving out date accordingly and yet give the providers enough notice so that it will not delay the start of your demolition.

Abolishing Services to your site means that all service lines need to be removed and the gas and electricity meters will be taken away, which can only be done after the final meter readings have been obtained by your providers for billing purposes.  This process can take up to 20 working days, however will vary between providers.

Where To From Here

Once at least the top 4 steps have been completed, you can forward all of the documentation to your Demolisher and you can commence the Step 5 if you haven't already.  Your demolisher will then submit all of the information to the Building Surveyor, to obtain your Demolition Permit.

For your free demolition quote from a reliable operator, please don't hesitate to contact us on 1300 605 624 and we'll be delighted to answer any questions you might have related to the Demolition of Your Property in Melbourne.