This is where most Building Information Certificate applications stall. The council asks for something about the waterproofing; the only person who could have issued a certificate is long gone; and the membrane itself is under the tiles where nobody can see it. What you can put in front of them is an independent record of what the documents establish, what is observable now, and — stated plainly — what cannot be verified without opening up.
Send Your Council Letter for a Fixed-Fee Quote or call Kevin on 0499 288 304 — fixed fee from $850 + GST, report within two business daysA building information certificate is issued by the council for the area in which the land sits. It lives in Division 6.7 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 — the same part of the Act that was previously known as the building certificate provisions.
The test the council applies is worth reading closely, because it is narrower and more practical than most people expect:
“A building information certificate is to be issued by a council only if it appears that— (a) there is no matter discernible by the exercise of reasonable care and skill that would entitle the council … to order the building to be repaired, demolished, altered, added to or rebuilt …”
Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW), s 6.25(1)Note what that does not say. It does not say the council must be certain that everything behind the walls was built correctly. It says nothing adverse should be discernible by the exercise of reasonable care and skill. That distinction is the entire reason an evidence report has a role here: on a bathroom finished years ago, exercising reasonable care and skill is precisely what is missing from the file.
The “seven years” people find online is real, but it is routinely described the wrong way round. There are two separate protections, and the broader one is not the seven-year one.
“A building information certificate operates to prevent the council, for a period of 7 years from the date of issue of the certificate … from making an order … requiring the building to be repaired, demolished, altered, added to or rebuilt … in relation to matters arising only from the deterioration of the building as a result solely of fair wear and tear.”
Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW), s 6.25(4)So the seven-year clock attaches to future deterioration from fair wear and tear. The separate protection at s 6.25(3) covers matters existing or occurring before the date of issue — and that one carries no seven-year expiry. A certificate also does not prevent a council from making a fire safety order or a building product rectification order, and it is not development consent: it does not turn unapproved work into approved work.
Section 6.26(1) provides that a certificate “may apply to the whole or to part only of a building”. For an owner whose only problem is one renovated bathroom, that matters — the scope your council will accept is theirs to determine, but the Act does not demand the entire dwelling in every case.
“On receipt of an application for a building information certificate, the council may, by notice in writing served on the applicant, require the applicant to supply it with such information (including building plans, specifications, survey reports and certificates) as may reasonably be necessary to enable the proper determination of the application.”
Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW), s 6.26(2)That notice is the moment most wet-area applications come unstuck. The document being requested — an installer’s waterproofing certificate — frequently cannot be produced by anybody, because only the licensed waterproofer who did the work could ever have issued it.
General information, not legal advice. The above summarises publicly available provisions of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) as at July 2026. Whether a building information certificate is appropriate for your situation, what your council requires, and what any of this means for you are questions for your council or your solicitor. We are not certifiers, we do not lodge applications, and we do not advise on whether to apply.
Councils are not being difficult. Wet areas are genuinely the hardest part of a renovation to establish after the fact, and they are the part most likely to cause damage if it was done badly.
Attend the wet areas in question, review whatever records exist, and produce a dated, independent report: what the documents establish, what is observable at accessible points, and what cannot be verified without opening up. You submit it as part of your application.
We do not issue certificates, lodge applications, advise on whether to apply, determine compliance, or perform destructive investigation. We are not certifiers and we hold no certifier registration.
That your application will succeed. The council assesses the application and the council determines it. Any provider who guarantees a council outcome is selling something they cannot deliver.
A certificate issued by the council for the area in which the land is situated, under Division 6.7 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. Under s 6.25 a council is to issue one only if it appears there is no matter discernible by the exercise of reasonable care and skill that would entitle it to order the building repaired, demolished, altered, added to or rebuilt — or there is such a matter but the council does not propose to act on it. Owners commonly apply where work was carried out without approval, where the records no longer exist, or where a purchaser's solicitor has raised it before settlement.
Narrower than it is usually described. The seven-year period at s 6.25(4) applies specifically to matters arising only from deterioration of the building as a result solely of fair wear and tear. The broader protection at s 6.25(3) covers matters existing or occurring before the date of issue, and is not limited to seven years. A certificate also does not prevent a fire safety order or a building product rectification order.
How that applies to your property is a question for your council or your solicitor.
A question for your council or your solicitor, not for us. What we can say is what a certificate is not: it is not development consent, and it does not convert unapproved work into approved work. Our role begins only once the wet-area evidence is what stands between you and a determination.
Section 6.26(1) provides that a certificate may apply to the whole or to part only of a building — so an application does not necessarily have to encompass an entire dwelling. What scope your council will accept is theirs to determine, but the legislation does not require the whole building in every case.
Section 6.26(2) allows a council, by notice in writing, to require such information — including building plans, specifications, survey reports and certificates — as may reasonably be necessary to properly determine the application. For a renovated wet area with no surviving installer's certificate, that notice is usually where things stop, because the document being asked for often cannot be produced by anyone.
Under s 6.22: the owner of the land; any other person with the owner's consent; the purchaser under a contract for the sale of the property, or the purchaser's Australian legal practitioner or agent; and a public authority that has notified the owner of its intention to apply. That a purchaser can apply in their own right is the part most people don't know.
Council application fees are set by each council, vary considerably across Sydney, and change — check your council's current fee schedule rather than a figure quoted anywhere else, including here. That fee is paid to the council and is separate from ours. Our fee covers the wet-area evidence report only: fixed, quoted upfront after we review your documents, typically from $850 + GST.
No — and nobody else can either. A certificate of installation can only come from the licensed waterproofer who did the work. Where that trade can't be found or never issued one, that document cannot be recreated by us, by a certifier, or by another waterproofer. What can be produced is an independent evidence report. Whether it satisfies the council is always the council's decision, and we say so in the report itself.
No charge to review it. The exact wording of what council has asked for determines what evidence will actually help — and occasionally it tells us we're not the right answer, in which case we'll say so.
A number you know before we attend, shaped to the rooms and the request. It doesn't change on site.
Accessible drains and penetrations, finished-surface falls, junction and seal condition, moisture indicators, subfloor observation where there's access — photographed and measured.
Room by room, records separated from observations, limitations stated, and the further options set out if the council wants more.
If the council comes back wanting something I could have captured on the day and didn't, I return and capture it at no charge. That's a promise about my work, not about their decision — the determination is always theirs, and any report that told you otherwise would be worth less, not more.
Council application fees are separate, set by your council, and paid to them.
Not a BIC, but the same underlying problem? See the Existing Wet-Area Evidence Report. Mid-sale or mid-purchase? See the Pre-Settlement Evidence Report. Renovating and not yet tiled? The Pre-Tile Inspection is the cheaper moment — record it before it's covered.
We didn't do the waterproofing, we don't sell the repair, and we don't certify the work. Our only product is the independent record.
What a document claims and what we saw on site are kept strictly separate — so the assessing officer always knows which kind of evidence they're weighing.
Every report states what could not be verified and routes judgement to the party whose call it is. That is precisely what makes it usable in front of a council.
We'll reply within one business day — usually asking for the council notice, then a fixed-fee quote. Nothing is charged until a quote is accepted.
Prefer to talk it through first? Call Kevin on 0499 288 304