Do I Need a Permit to Demolish My House in Boroondara?

Short answer: yes, and usually more than one approval. The longer answer is worth understanding, because in Boroondara the approvals — not the machinery — are what determine your timeline.

The building permit

Demolishing a building in Victoria requires a **building permit**. This is the core approval and it is issued by a registered building surveyor, not directly by the council.

Section 29A consent

Before that permit can issue, you generally need council consent under **Section 29A of the Building Act 1993**. This is the council's opportunity to consider whether the building should be demolished — particularly whether it has heritage value or contributes to the character of the area.

This is the step homeowners most often have not heard of, and it is the one that can generate an unwelcome answer. Councils can refuse, and in a suburb with significant older housing stock like much of Boroondara they sometimes do.

Planning permits and Heritage Overlays

If your property is covered by a **Heritage Overlay**, you will also need a **planning permit** to demolish. This is a separate process from both the building permit and Section 29A consent, and it is the one most likely to add months.

Heritage Overlays are widespread through Kew, Canterbury and parts of Camberwell, and appear across other Boroondara streets too. Where a building is 'contributory' to a heritage precinct, full demolition may not be approved at all — council may instead require that a period facade or wing is retained. Overlays are address-specific: your neighbour's position tells you nothing definitive about yours.

Other overlays can apply as well, including vegetation and tree protection controls, which may restrict removal independently of the demolition itself.

Service abolishments

Not a permit, but the same category of problem: electricity, gas, water and telecommunications each require formal abolishment before demolition, and each provider has its own lead time. This is the single most common reason a demolition date slips. These applications should be lodged as early as possible and run in parallel with the permit process, never after it.

The realistic timeline

The machine work on a typical house is one to two weeks. From first inspection to a cleared block is more realistically **three to eight weeks**, and the difference is almost entirely approvals and disconnections.

Where a Heritage Overlay planning permit is involved — as it often is in Kew and Canterbury — add considerably more. That process runs to its own schedule and cannot be compressed.

Check your overlay position first

Before you engage a builder, settle a design or commit to a program, find out what overlays affect your address. It costs nothing to check and it is the difference between a project that runs smoothly and one that stalls after you have already spent money.

Any competent demolisher will check this as part of quoting and tell you plainly what applies — including when the answer is that your project looks difficult.