3 May 2024 release: BASIX, Post-consent Certificate and other services.

BASIX service

The following enhancements were made to address usability:  

• An ‘In progress’ BASIX certificate application will open in edit mode when accessed via the global search or ‘Recents’ menu.
• Additional document categories will be available when responding to additional information requests for alternative assessments. These categories are ‘BASIX Certificate’, ‘Heritage form signed by council’, ‘Lot ownership document’ and ‘Technology specifications’.
• Additional tips on how to pass the Thermal performance target will be displayed in the ‘Things to address’ column to assist the user.
• Table formatting within the BASIX report has been improved to ensure that content is not cut off at the bottom of the page.
• The label ‘Max loads’ on the thermal comfort tab has been amended to ‘Maximum allowable loads’ for simulation method applications only.
• The date displayed on BASIX Certificates and BASIX Reports will be amended from Greenwich Mean Time to Australian Eastern Standard Time.
• Amendment to the validations to ensure that a user will only be able to cancel an application if the application is ‘In progress’. Users will no longer be able to cancel an application that has a status of ‘Awaiting payment’, ‘Assign payment pending’ or ‘Submitted’. 
• The ‘External wall area’ field in the BASIX Certificate will be updated to include the area value and not the text ‘external wall’.
• The BASIX certificate and BASIX report will include the name of the local government area as input by the user when they select ‘Address did not display’. Note: The user should select the relevant name from the predictive list provided to ensure that the correct council name is provided.
• Amendments to the system generated email notifications when a user requests assessment of the development under previous standards and when a transfer project request has been approved.

Post-consent Certificate service

The following enhancements were made to the Post-consent Certificate service to improve usability:

Building work case

• Developer can update / replace the building practitioner on the building work case by selecting ‘Edit practitioner’.
• The document lodgement task on the building work case will be assigned to the new building practitioner if the previous building practitioner has not completed this task.
• Construction Certificates for all classes of building relevant to the development site shown on the building work case document upload screen. 

Intent to Seek Occupation Certificate (ITSOC) and Strata Bond (SB) cases

• Building compliance declaration task will be assigned to the active practitioner associated with the building work case when the Intent to Seek Occupation Certificate or Expected Completion Notice is submitted, or the Expected Completion Amendment Notice is submitted with a new construction certificate. 
• The Building Compliance declaration task will not be assigned to the updated building practitioner when the ‘Declare as built final set’ task has been completed.
• A new Building Compliance declaration task will be created when a new Construction Certificate is selected during the submission of an Expected Completion Amendment Notice, and the previous task has been completed. 
• ‘Expected Completion Amendment Notice (ECAN)’ option visible in the ‘Actions’ menu on the Intent to Seek Occupation Certificate (ITSOC) case unless the status is ‘OC audit in progress’, ‘Pending OC issuance’ or ‘OC issued’.
• The Expected Completion Amendment Notice will not request Building work levy information if the original Building work levy request has been paid. This information will only be visible when the original payment is pending.
• ‘Apply of OC’ action button is disabled when an Expected Completion Amendment Notice is submitted after an Occupation Certificate audit is completed. 
• Status of an ITSOC when an Expected Completion Amendment Notice is submitted after the completion of an Occupation Certificate audit was renamed from ‘Pending OC Issuance’ to ‘ECN submitted’.
• Construction Certificates for all classes of building relevant to the development site are displayed on the ITSOC Expected Completion Notice and the Expected Completion Amendment Notice document upload screens. The developer will be able to select any relevant Construction Certificate.
• Strata Bond questions will be pre-populated with content from either the Expected Completion Notice and the Expected Completion Amendment Notice for Class 2 developments, when a Strata Bond case has not been created previously.

Occupation Certificate (OC) case 

• The ‘Declare as built variation’ task will be assigned to the building practitioner that completed the ‘Declare as built final set’ task on the relevant ITSOC and not the current/active building practitioner. This will be part of the ‘Post OC’ step.

Automatic Mutual Recognition 

The Automatic Mutual Recognition (AMR) scheme was introduced in NSW on 1 July 2021. This scheme allows certifiers from other states, except Queensland who is not currently participating in the AMR scheme, to conduct work in NSW. The NSW Planning Portal currently validates the certifier’s registration number against this database, however further enhancements were made as part of this release to improve the speed of validation: 

• The certifiers’ registration number will be validated against the AMR scheme on the Post-consent Certificate determination screen for Construction and Occupation Certificates, and within the ‘Issue BASIX Completion Receipt’ functionality. 
• Certifiers that do not have an eligible AMR registration status will be unable to determine Complying Development, Construction and Occupation Certificates, or issue Critical Stage Inspection and Written Direction Notices.  
• During the registration process for a NSW Planning Portal private certifier account, the AMR registration number will be verified for non-NSW certifier. If the non-NSW certifier is ineligible to certify in NSW, they will be unable to register for a private certifier user account. 

Housing Productivity Contribution

The following ‘What is this?’ tooltips within the Contributions case were amended as part of this release:

• The existing tooltip for label ‘Do you want to add existing development?’, located in the ‘Proposed and existing uses’ stage of the workflow, will be amended to ‘For further detailed explanations on calculating the Housing and Productivity Contribution, please view the Worked Examples document on our website.’.
• The existing tooltip for the ‘Existing’ table located in the ‘Total number of units’ stage of the workflow, will be amended to ‘For further detailed explanations on calculating the Housing and Productivity Contribution, please view the Worked Examples document on our website.’.
• The existing tooltip for label ‘Do you want to add existing development?’, located in the ‘Applicant input’ stage of the workflow, will be amended to ‘For further detailed explanations on calculating the Housing and Productivity Contribution, please view the Worked Examples document on our website.’.

Note: This update will impact the Contribution cases related to the Complying Development Certificate, Development application and State DA services.

Application Programming Interface (API)

Minor enhancements on the following Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) due to the enhancements in this release have been communicated to vendors and middleware providers: Online Development Application service API v2, Online Certificate Registration service API v1, Online Building Information Certificate service API v1 and Common API v1. We encourage you to speak to your vendor about any specific impacts to your system. 

For more information, please view the release notes for the relevant API.

Machinery of government

The department name has been updated to “Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure” in the following locations:

• the certifier declarations and system generated documentation within the Certificate Registration service
• the applicant declarations and system generated application form within the Post-consent Certificate service
• Privacy notice in the Online DA - State service; and
• System generated email notification received when an application is lodged in the Moorebank Traffic Certificates service. 

Support materials

The following Quick Reference Guides have been updated in the last month:

These updated documents can be found on either the Applicant Resources  page of the NSW Planning Portal, or the knowledge management section of the NSW Planning Portal dashboard. Note: the latter is only available to certifier, council and agency users.