How do I find my house plans and get them from council?

How to get house plans starts with the council: ask it for a search of its building records for the property. Most councils keep the plans lodged with past building approvals, including those a private certifier lodged with them, and the owner, or someone with the owner’s consent, can usually get copies for a fee. Expect a wait while the file is found, and a longer one for an older house whose records sit in an archive. Some councils take the request online, and others want a form and proof that you own the place.

What will the records show?

What was lodged, which is not always what was built. A file can hold the floor plans, the elevations and the site plan of the original house, the approvals for later additions, and the final inspection at the end. Plans from long ago may be hand drawn and missing pages, and work done without approval will not be on file at all. Read them as the starting point, then check the house against them.

What if there are none?

Then the house gets measured. Older houses often have no plans on record, and plenty of later extensions were never lodged. A drafter can measure the house and draw it, and a site plan needs much less than a full set: the outline of the house on the lot, its distance to each boundary and the windows and doors that matter to the new work. The builder of a newer house, or the previous owner, sometimes has a set the council does not. The post on site plans explains what council expects to see on one.

Why does a granny flat need them?

Because the new dwelling is read against the old one. The certifier wants the distance between the house and the flat, the windows that face each other, the site cover of both together and the open space left over, and an existing house drawn wrong puts every one of those out. The post on granny flat site plans covers what that sheet has to show.

Reading it for your own lot

RapidSiteplan reads the lot from its address in a minute, with the boundaries from the land records and the house traced from the aerial photo, so the outline of what is already built is on the sheet before any records arrive. Check the main distances with a tape, place the new work, and the sheet dimensions both against every boundary. The granny flats page shows the sheet, and the council pages for every state show what each council maps. Start with the address.

Common questions

How do I find my house plans and get them from council? Ask the council for a search of its building records for the property. As the owner, or with the owner’s consent, you can usually get copies of the plans lodged with past approvals for a fee. Older houses may have partial plans or none, and the records show what was lodged, which is not always what was built.