Approvals and documentation
Modifications to an approval
Changing a consent you already hold. Cheaper and faster than a new application — until the change is large enough that it isn't one.
Projects change between approval and construction. The budget moves, the builder finds something, the client changes their mind about the kitchen, an engineer needs another 300 mm. Section 4.55 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 is the mechanism for changing a consent rather than starting again.
One thing to establish first: this applies to development consents. A complying development certificate cannot be modified this way. A changed CDC is generally a new CDC. If your original approval was a certificate rather than a consent, the route is different, and assuming otherwise costs weeks.
Four tracks
| Track | The test | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| s4.55(1) | Correcting a minor error, misdescription or miscalculation | A typo, a wrong lot reference, an arithmetic slip. |
| s4.55(1A) | Modification of minimal environmental impact, and substantially the same development | Modest plan changes, condition tweaks, minor additions. |
| s4.55(2) | Substantially the same development, where the impact is more than minimal | Larger plan changes, material design changes, added floor area. |
| s4.56 | Modification of a consent granted or modified by the Land and Environment Court | Where the Court dealt with the consent. |
The tracks are applied in order and the difference between them is real. A 4.55(1) correction is administrative. A 4.55(2) modification is an assessment, may need re-notification, and takes a corresponding amount of time.
The test that decides it: substantially the same development
For both 4.55(1A) and 4.55(2), the consent as modified has to remain substantially the same development as the one originally approved. That is assessed both qualitatively and quantitatively:
- The same use, and the same essential character
- The same scale — floor area, height, footprint, dwelling count, within reason
- The same siting
The point is that a modification is a change to the approved development, not a fresh proposal wearing the old consent's number. A different use, a materially bigger building, an extra storey, an extra dwelling — each of those points away from substantially the same, and at some point the honest answer is that it needs a new development application.
We give that answer when it applies. A modification lodged where a new DA was required doesn't get approved faster; it gets refused slower.
How we document one
The industry convention, and the one councils expect, is a red-text amended statement of environmental effects: the original SEE re-issued with every change shown in place in red, so an assessing planner can see exactly what moved without comparing two documents line by line.
We add one thing to that convention, because the lodged examples we see routinely fail on it: a summary of modification at the front, stating in a paragraph exactly what is changing and which section 4.55 track it runs under. We have read modification statements where the actual change was disclosed in the last line of the conclusion. That is not a drafting quirk, it is a reason for an assessment to go badly.
The rest of the package:
- Updated plans clearly showing the modifications, with a comparison against the approved set
- Updated supporting documents wherever the change triggers them — BASIX, stormwater, acoustic, shadow diagrams
- The list of conditions to be added, deleted or amended
- Any referral or concurrence the change re-engages
- A cross-check of every change against the original SEE's compliance tables, because a modification that contradicts its own compliance rows will be picked up
Re-notification is a live question on 4.55(2) and sometimes on 1A. It depends on council policy and on whether the change affects neighbours, and it affects the timeframe, so we flag it before lodgement rather than after.
What we need from you
The original consent — the full instrument, with conditions, not just the approval letter — and an itemised list of what is changing. With those two things the track assessment takes very little time.
Our fees for modification documentation are scoped per project, since a condition amendment and a redesigned first floor are not the same job.
Need to change an approval?
Send us the consent and the changes. We'll tell you which track it is, or that it isn't one.