Neighbour notices on a build are a compliance job and a goodwill job at the same time. The list of who to tell should not be the hard part.
For a complying development certificate, the notification obligation sits with the applicant, not the council. The rule is properties within 20 metres of the boundary of the development lot.
| Where | Notice before construction starts |
|---|---|
| Metropolitan areas | At least 7 days, in writing |
| Rural, regional and residential release areas | At least 2 days, in writing |
The notice has to be in writing. It can be handed over in person, put in the letterbox, or posted.
Twenty metres is a short distance, often only four to ten properties, and on a straightforward suburban block you can work it out by standing on the footpath. Where it gets awkward is corner blocks, battleaxe blocks, unit buildings and anything with a long boundary, because the 20 metres runs from every part of the boundary, not from the house.
For a normal DA, the council runs the notification. You do not need to build a list, and you should not send your own notice out as if it were the official one.
The jobs where the list is genuinely hard to build by hand:
The notice itself matters less than being able to prove you sent it. Download the address list as a spreadsheet and keep it with the job file, alongside the date you delivered and a photo of the notice. If a complaint lands six months later, that file is the whole defence.
The Copy job summary button gives you the address, radius, letterbox count and date in one line, ready to paste into a site diary or a works notice.
Drop a pin on the lot, set the distance the conditions ask for, and take the spreadsheet.
