I’ve been going through the process of planning a small extension at home and keep running into questions about what exactly a relevant building surveyor does beyond just checking drawings. Some people told me they only show up for inspections, others say they’re deeply involved right from the permit stage. For a domestic project, especially when you want to make sure everything is compliant and safe, how far does their responsibility actually go? Do they help avoid mistakes, or is it more like a final stamp of approval?
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The Role of a Relevant Building Surveyor: Ensuring Compliance and Safety in Domestic Projects
The Role of a Relevant Building Surveyor: Ensuring Compliance and Safety in Domestic Projects
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Good question. When I did an owner-builder project a couple of years ago, the building surveyor was basically the person making sure the whole process didn’t go off the rails. They weren’t there to tell me how to build, but they had to confirm that what I was doing lined up with the regulations and that the safety side wasn’t being ignored. For example, when I swapped my roof design midway through, they flagged that the original engineering report wouldn’t cover it, so I had to get updated drawings before work could continue. Without them, I might have gone ahead and ended up with a compliance nightmare later. They’re also the ones issuing the building permit at the start and the occupancy permit or final certificate at the end, so you can’t really move forward without their approval. If you’re curious about how this works in Victoria, there’s a decent breakdown here: https://obavic.com.au/— it helped me make sense of all the steps.