Statement of Compliance checklist (Victorian subdivisions)

1. Permit conditions

Work from the permit condition register, not from memory.

• Every condition with a "before Statement of Compliance" trigger is Discharged with evidence filed — or formally Not applicable with the reason recorded.
• Conditions requiring an agreement (Section 173, maintenance, WSUD) are executed AND registered on title where the condition says so, with the dealing number in the register.
• Endorsed plans on file match the as-constructed works; any secondary consent or plan amendment is approved, not just lodged.
• Conditions owned by referral authorities have that authority’s written confirmation, not council’s assumption of it.

2. Council engineering

• Practical Completion (or the council’s equivalent acceptance) issued for every stage the SoC covers, with the defects list closed or formally deferred to the maintenance period.
• As-constructed drawings, asset data and any digital asset register submitted in the council’s required format and acknowledged.
• Maintenance / defects-liability security lodged in the required form and amount; the register records the expiry and return dates.
• Supervision, inspection and any outstanding council fees paid, with receipts filed against the condition they satisfy.
• Street naming, lighting, signage and landscaping obligations that gate SoC are complete or formally bonded where the council allows it.

3. Referral authorities

Each authority issues its own consent; the SoC application needs all of them.

• Water retailer: works accepted, fees and contributions paid, consent to Statement of Compliance issued.
• Melbourne Water (or the relevant drainage authority): drainage scheme fees settled, works accepted, consent issued.
• Electricity distributor: works complete, easements in the agreed form, consent or clearance letter issued.
• Telecommunications: provider confirmation that the development is serviced or the agreed arrangement is in place.
• Gas (where reticulated): works complete and clearance issued.
• Any other referral authority named on the permit (DTP, CFA, catchment authority) has issued its consent.

4. Plan of subdivision and title

• The certified plan matches the constructed lots, reserves, roads and easements; every easement created by an authority consent is shown correctly.
• For staged subdivisions, the register states what THIS stage still owes without double-counting an earlier stage’s discharge or borrowing a later stage’s works.
• Public open space, reserves and road vesting are as the permit and the plan require.
• SPEAR lodgement pack complete: application, certified plan, every authority consent, council engineering sign-off.

5. Lodge once, not twice

• Lodge the SoC application only when every consent is in hand — a partial application restarts the clock and the conversations.
• The register shows who is chasing any last consent and the date it was promised.
• Client and purchaser-settlement teams have the realistic SoC date, not the hopeful one.

6. After SoC (the file is not closed)

• Defects liability / maintenance period start and end dates recorded, with the inspection booked before expiry.
• Security return dates and the release request path recorded per authority.
• As-constructed and asset handover obligations that fall after SoC are in the programme with an owner.
• Bond and security release requests drafted against the conditions they close out.