Terms & Conditions

01

These terms

These terms apply to town planning and architectural drafting services provided by Residential Plannings — a founder-led practice operating in Sydney, New South Wales — to you as our client.

They apply alongside any written quote, fee proposal or scope of work we give you. Where a quote says something different from these terms, the quote governs that point.

Using this website, or sending us an enquiry, does not create a client relationship. That begins when we accept your instructions in writing and you accept our fee proposal.

02

What we do

Depending on what you engage us for, our services may include preparing a Preliminary Planning Assessment; preparing planning documentation such as a Statement of Environmental Effects; preparing architectural drawings; lodging and managing applications with councils, private certifiers and the NSW Planning Portal; and coordinating other consultants on your behalf.

The scope of any particular engagement is what your fee proposal says it is. Work outside that scope is a variation — see clause 08.

03

What we are not

We are town planners and architectural drafters. We are not lawyers, we are not a certifying authority, and we are not a surveyor, structural engineer, arborist, bushfire consultant or building contractor.

Nothing we provide is legal advice. Where a matter turns on your legal rights — an enforcement notice, a dispute with a neighbour or a builder, a covenant, an easement, or the interpretation of a contract — you should obtain advice from a lawyer, and we will tell you when we think you should.

Where specialist input is required, we will tell you what is needed and can coordinate it. Those consultants are engaged on their own terms and are responsible for their own work.

04

What we need from you

Our work is only as good as the information it is built on. You agree to give us accurate and complete information, and to tell us promptly if something changes.

That includes disclosing any existing work carried out without approval, any correspondence you have had with a council or certifier, and any order, notice or dispute affecting the property. Withholding it does not make it go away — it surfaces during assessment, at your cost.

You also agree that you are the owner of the property or otherwise entitled to make the application, and that you will provide owner's consent where an application requires it.

05

Timeframes

We will give you an indication of how long our own work will take, and we will tell you if that changes.

We cannot control how long an authority takes. Assessment periods, requests for additional information, referrals to other agencies, public notification and the timing of a determination are all matters for the consent authority under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW).

Any timeframe we give for a council or certifier stage is an estimate based on experience, not a commitment, and is not a term of our agreement with you.

06

We cannot guarantee approval

This is the most important clause in this document. We prepare, document and argue an application. We do not decide it.

A council, a private certifier or another consent authority decides whether to grant consent, on the merits and against the controls that apply. No planner can promise a determination, and we do not. Any indication we give about likely prospects is a professional opinion based on the information available at the time.

We are not liable for a refusal, for conditions imposed on a consent, or for a determination taking longer than expected, where we have prepared and lodged your documentation with reasonable care and skill.

Fees are charged for the work performed. They are not contingent on the outcome, and they are not refundable because an application was refused.

07

Fees, quotes and authority charges

We will give you a written fee proposal before we start. Fees quoted are for the scope described in that proposal.

Fees payable to third parties are separate from ours and are your responsibility. These commonly include council application and assessment fees, certifier fees, NSW Planning Portal charges, long service levy where applicable, and the fees of any other consultant engaged on your project. We will tell you what we know about these, but they are set by others and can change.

Payment terms, including any deposit and the timing of invoices, are set out in your fee proposal. We may pause work on a matter where an invoice is materially overdue, after telling you first.

08

Changes to scope

If you change what you want to do, if the property turns out to carry a constraint that was not disclosed or reasonably apparent, or if an authority requires work beyond the agreed scope, that is a variation.

We will tell you before doing variation work, and what it will cost. We will not do chargeable work you have not agreed to.

09

Drawings, documents and copyright

Copyright in the drawings, reports and documentation we produce remains ours under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), unless we agree otherwise in writing. Paying our fees buys you the right to use the documents, not ownership of them.

On payment of our fees in full, we grant you a licence to use those documents for the project and the property they were prepared for — including lodging them with a consent authority, and providing them to your builder, certifier and consultants for that project.

That licence does not extend to reusing the documents on a different site, to a different project, or by another party for their own purposes, and it does not permit anyone to modify them and present the result as our work.

Documents we prepare are prepared for a specific property, a specific proposal and the controls applying at the time. They should not be relied on for anything else.

10

Information you give us

You keep ownership of the material you give us — surveys, existing plans, photographs and reports — and you confirm you are entitled to give it to us and to allow us to use it for your project.

Some of that material may be prepared by others and carry its own copyright. Where a third party's drawing has to be reproduced or relied on, obtaining permission is your responsibility unless we agree to arrange it.

How we handle personal information is set out in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these terms. It includes what becomes public when an application is lodged — worth reading before you lodge, not after.

11

Ending an engagement

You may end an engagement at any time by telling us in writing. We may end one where you do not provide instructions or information we need, where fees remain unpaid after we have asked, or where continuing would require us to act improperly.

If an engagement ends, you pay for work performed up to that point, and for any third-party costs already committed on your behalf.

Where we hold a document you are entitled to under clause 09, we will provide it once outstanding fees are paid.

12

Liability, and the guarantees we cannot exclude

We provide our services with reasonable care and skill.

Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any guarantee, right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law (Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)) or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded. Those consumer guarantees apply and continue to apply.

To the extent the law allows, and other than under those guarantees, our liability arising out of an engagement is limited to re-supplying the services or refunding the fees paid for the part of the work the claim relates to, at our option.

To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, including loss of profit, loss of opportunity, holding costs, finance costs or delay costs.

We are not liable for loss caused by inaccurate or incomplete information you gave us, by the decision of a consent authority, or by the acts or omissions of another consultant or contractor.

13

Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of New South Wales, and the courts of New South Wales have jurisdiction over any dispute arising under them.

If a dispute arises, we ask that you raise it with us first. Most problems are a misunderstanding about scope, and most are resolved in a conversation.

14

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The version that applies to your matter is the version in effect when we accepted your instructions, together with your fee proposal.

The current version is always published on this page, with the date it took effect shown at the top.