Do I need approval?

All home businesses involving the preparation of food and beverages require Development Consent, either via a Development Application (DA) or a Complying Development Certificate (CDC) and are never considered ‘exempt development’ under State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008 (the Codes SEPP).

For apartments in a residential flat building or townhouse development, please check the property’s strata by-laws. You will require strata consent when applying for a DA or a CDC application for your proposal.

Approval is also required to upgrade a kitchen or construct a new kitchen to comply with relevant standards but may in some circumstances be able to be included as part of the DA for your proposed ‘home business’.

Approval may be obtained via the following processes:

1. Complying Development

Use of a dwelling as a home business

Council or an accredited private certifier may approve a home business for food manufacturing as ‘complying development’. For this to occur the home business must meet specific standards detailed in the (the Codes SEPP).  These standards are as follows:

  • the home business must not involve a change of building use (that is, not more than 10 per cent of the floor area of the dwelling (or the ancillary building));
  • the home business must not comprise more than 30m2 of floor area; and
  • the home business must be carried out on premises that comply with the relevant requirements of AS 4674-2004 Design, construction and fit-out of food premises.

Approval is issued in the form of a Complying Development Certificate and must be obtained prior to the dwelling being used for a home business.

Kitchen upgrade or new kitchen

Council or an accredited private certifier may approve a kitchen upgrade or construction of a new kitchen to meet the requirements of AS 4674-2004.

For this to occur, the development must meet the following standards for internal alterations detailed in the Codes SEPP:

  • the development must not result in a change of building classification;
  • the development must not result in any additional separate dwelling;
  • the development must not result in the creation of an additional floor within the dwelling; and
  • must not result in a change in the number of bedrooms in the building, unless the building is a class 1a building.

The Complying Development Certificate must be obtained prior to construction works.

2. Development Application

If the requirements under complying development as listed above cannot be satisfied, a DA must be lodged with Council.

Development applications must comply with the requirements of the Waverley LEP 2012 and the Waverley Development Control Plan 2012 (Waverley DCP 2012).  Please refer to the Waverley Development Application Guide to assist with the preparation of your DA.