Whether you're developing land by building a granny flat or laying out a new suburb, you'll need to get approvals from us. Land development includes dual occupancies or duplexes, subdivisions or boundary adjustments, commercial or industrial developments, residential apartments, townhouses or villas.
Think about the water, wastewater and stormwater services your development will need and engage with us early. You might need to build something to meet our servicing requirements.
Tips to help you plan:
Register for Sydney Water Tap in®
Sydney Water Tap in gives you access to convenient online Sydney Water application forms for building and development projects, and provides step-by-step instructions on what you need to support them.
Your council or local authority will need to provide consent or approval for your development.
Check with the council to find out what type of consent you need. They may have conditions that you have to meet before they give consent. They may ask you to apply for a Section 73 Compliance Certificate, which certifies that you have adequate access to water and wastewater services for your new development.
Sydney Water will need to approve your building plans if you're building. Your water servicing coordinator or Sydney Water Developer Direct case manager can manage our approval.
You may need to protect our pipes and assets before you can get your Section 73 Compliance Certificate and building plan approval. If these works can't be built or inspected until you start building (for example, pouring concrete piers), we can issue a conditional building plan approval for you to take to your council.
The Land development guide outlines how to meet our requirements for servicing the development and receive your Section 73 Certificate. It details the process, related policies, forms, fees and charges.
Before starting to build extra homes or subdivide your land, you need to apply for a Section 73 Compliance Certificate. This ensures your development has, at a minimum:
A Section 73 certificate is proof for your council that your development or subdivision has access to our water, wastewater and stormwater system. It also confirms that you've paid any necessary contributions towards existing infrastructure. Find out more about infrastructure contributions.
You can apply through:
Once your application fee's been paid, we'll assess your application. We'll either approve it or send a Notice of Requirements letter letting you know what else you need to do to be approved.
If you apply through Sydney Water Developer Direct, you can track your application at Sydney Water Tap in.
Your water servicing coordinator gets your Notice of Requirements letter. They coordinate the design and construction of any works required using our listed providers. If construction works are required, you and your providers will need to sign a Developer Works Deed.
When all your requirements are complete, your water servicing coordinator will receive the Section 73 Certificate. They can also manage your building plan approval for you.
We'll assign a case manager to your application, who will determine the servicing requirements for your development and assess your building plans to make sure that the building doesn't impact our pipes and structures. We'll also obtain quotes for any works required, and we'll provide you with a copy of your Notice of Requirements letter.
You can either keep using Sydney Water Developer Direct or change to a water servicing coordinator to manage your water and wastewater (sewer) works. If you remain with Sydney Water Developer Direct, you'll need to sign a minor works contract and pay for the works up front (water and wastewater works are bundled together as one quote and can't be separated).
When you've met all your requirements, you'll receive your Section 73 Compliance Certificate directly.
You may need to protect our pipes and assets before you can get your Section 73 Compliance Certificate and building plan approval. If these works can't be built or inspected until you start building (for example, pouring concrete piers), we can issue a conditional building plan approval for you to take to your council.
Your Notice of Requirements will be based on your development and plans, and their impact on our systems. It will let you know:
You can't use private service lines in easements, shared service arrangements or pipes encroaching from or over your property to service your development. If you need to build works, you'll need to use one of our listed providers, at your cost.
Once your construction works are completed and we've inspected them, we'll take them over and they'll become part of our system. We won't take over any of your private plumbing works. When you've met all the other requirements, we'll issue your Section 73 Compliance Certificate to your water servicing coordinator, or directly to you if you used Sydney Water Developer Direct. You can provide the certificate to your council.
You may need to protect our pipes and assets before you can get your Section 73 Compliance Certificate and building plan approval. If these works can't be built or inspected until you start building (for example, pouring concrete piers), we can issue a conditional building plan approval for you to take to your council.
Find out more about adjusting or protecting our systems and pipes in our Asset adjustment and protection manual.
You need our approval to connect to water and wastewater systems. Your water servicing coordinator or Sydney Water Developer Direct case manager can help you with meeting your connection requirements.
If you're connecting a business that produces commercial trade wastewater or industrial trade wastewater, you must get our permission before you discharge to our wastewater system.
These guides will help you to plan your project:
Also see business pricing and developer pricing.
