85A   Process for obtaining complying development certificates

(1) Application
An applicant may, in accordance with the regulations, apply to:

(a)  the council, or

(b)  an accredited certifier,

      for a complying development certificate.

(2) Public notification
An application for a complying development certificate is to be publicly notified in accordance with a development control plan if the development control plan requires the public notification of the complying development.

(3) Evaluation
The council or accredited certifier must consider the application and determine:

(a)  whether or not the proposed development is complying development, and

(b)  whether or not the proposed development complies with the relevant development standards, and

(c)  if the proposed development is complying development because of the provisions of a local environmental plan, or a local environmental plan in relation to which the council has made a development control plan, that specifies standards and conditions for the complying development, whether or not the proposed development complies with those standards and conditions.

(4)  A council or accredited certifier must not refuse to issue a complying development certificate on the ground that any building product or system relating to the development does not comply with a requirement of the Building Code of Australia if the building product or system is accredited in respect of that requirement in accordance with the regulations.

(5)  A council, an employee of a council and an accredited certifier do not incur any liability as a consequence of acting in accordance with subsection (4).

(6) Determination
The council or an accredited certifier may determine an application:

(a)  by issuing a complying development certificate, unconditionally or (to the extent required by the regulations, an environmental planning instrument or a development control plan) subject to conditions, or

(b)  by refusing to issue a complying development certificate.

(7)  The council or an accredited certifier must not refuse to issue a complying development certificate if the proposed development complies with the development standards applicable to it and complies with other requirements prescribed by the regulations relating to the issue of a complying development certificate.

(8)  The determination of an application by the council or accredited certifier must be completed within 7 days (or such longer period as may be agreed to by the applicant) after lodgment of the application.

(9)  In determining the application, the council or the accredited certifier must impose a condition that is required to be imposed under Division 6 in relation to the complying development.

(10)  There is no right of appeal against the determination of, or a failure or refusal to determine, an application for a complying development certificate by a council or an accredited certifier.

(10A) Payment of long service levy
Where a council or accredited certifier completes a complying development certificate, that certificate is not to be forwarded or delivered to the applicant, unless the council or accredited certifier is satisfied that any long service levy payable under section 34 of the Building and Construction Industry Long Service Payments Act 1986 (or, where such a levy is payable by instalments, the first instalment of the levy) has been paid.

(11) Post-determination notification
On the determination of an application for the issue of a complying development certificate:

(a)  the council or accredited certifier must notify the applicant of the determination, and

(b)  the accredited certifier must notify the council of the determination.

(12)  For the purposes of subsection (7), development standard includes a provision of a development control plan that would be a development standard, within the meaning of section 4, if the provision were in an environmental planning instrument.