Property terms explained

Short pages on the terms that decide what a property report can and cannot tell you. No advice, and nothing you have to buy to read them.

Planning

• What a section 10.7 certificate covers
  A section 10.7 planning certificate is the council's statement of the controls on a parcel. What the 10.7(2) must state, what the 10.7(5) adds, and the fee.
• What zone is my property? NSW land zones
  NSW zones such as R2, RU1, E1 and C2 come from the council's LEP. What each group is for, how to look one up, and what a zone does not tell you.
• Minimum lot size, height and floor space ratio
  Minimum lot size, height and floor space ratio are maps in the council's LEP. What each means, how FSR is worked out, and why none is an entitlement.
• Heritage item, conservation area or overlay
  A heritage item is one listed place; a conservation area covers a whole area. What each needs consent for in NSW, and how Victoria's Heritage Overlay works.

Hazards

• What "unmapped" means
  Three answers, not two: in a hazard area, clear, or unmapped. Unmapped means no register covers the land, so a search cannot say whether the hazard applies.
• What bush fire prone land means
  Bush fire prone land is a certified map, not a prediction. The category and the buffer decide what a build has to satisfy, and an absence is not certification.
• BAL rating versus bush fire prone land
  Bush fire prone land is a council map; a Bushfire Attack Level is a site assessment. Why no map can give a BAL, who assesses one, and what RFS categories mean.
• What a flood planning area is
  NSW planning has no "flood zone". The nearest register is the council's flood planning area: a planning control, not a flood risk model. How to check.
• Acid sulfate soils: classes 1 to 5 in NSW
  An acid sulfate soils class says how deep the soils are likely to be and which works need consent. What classes 1 to 5 mean, and what a class does not tell you.
• What a mine subsidence district means
  A mine subsidence district is land over planned, active or past coal mining. Why building needs Subsidence Advisory NSW approval, and what a buyer should ask.

Land and title

• What "Lot 12 DP 123456" means
  A lot and plan number is the legal identifier of land. What DP and SP mean, why a unit sits on a strata plan, and how to find the lot and plan from an address.
• Easements: what they are and how to find them
  An easement gives someone else a right over part of a lot, like a drain or a driveway. How to find one on the title and plan, and what it can mean for a buyer.
• Land value is not market value
  The Valuer General values the land alone, excluding the house; it is not market value. It is what rates and land tax are calculated on.

Reports from $9.90 including GST, paid once. The price belongs to the jurisdiction the address is in. The check is free: it tells you the exact total for your address, and which registers cover it, before you pay anything.