Sydney Water Developer Direct®

Your direct link to us for minor works

When you apply for your Section 73 Compliance Certificate, Sydney Water Developer Direct will review your construction works. If we assess that you have minor works, we can work with you directly to meet our requirements. Water servicing coordinators can assist with both minor works and major works.

When to choose Sydney Water Developer Direct

How to apply for your Section 73 Compliance Certificate

Who can construct required works

Charges to expect

When you're building a granny flat

How we can help with minor works

We can help with simple construction or protection work on minor developments to meet our requirements. Minor developments include small unit blocks and dual occupancies, or creating 3 or 4 new lots.

We can assist if: 

  • you only need to construct minor sewer works to meet our requirements
  • you're ready to start construction of any works within the next 4 months
  • no contaminated land or heritage items are on your property.

Please note that we can't assist if you've already engaged a water servicing coordinator.

Planning a big development?
If you're planning large-scale land rezoning, a new development or a redevelopment project, call us on 13 20 92 8am–5:30pm Monday to Friday (except public holidays) for advice. Ask for the City, Growth & Development team.

How to apply for your Section 73 Compliance Certificate

Apply online and pay your application fee by Visa or Mastercard. You'll need a valid Development Application from your local council and be ready to start any works listed in your Notice of Requirements within 4 months.

Please include your council-approved documents, including:

  • site plan
  • building plan
  • development consent
  • pre-allocated plan number.

You can attach up to 10 files up to 10 MB each as Microsoft Word, DWG, PDF, PNG, JPG, ZIP, XLS or XLSX. If any file isn't in one of these formats or is larger than 10 MB, call us on 1300 082 746 7am–4pm Monday to Friday (except public holidays) before you apply.

How we process your application

Within 2 working days, Sydney Water Developer Direct will email your application reference number and payment receipt and assign a case manager, who'll contact you. They'll determine the servicing requirements for your development and assess your building plans to make sure it won't impact our pipes and structures. They'll also obtain quotes for any works required.

You'll receive your Notice of Requirements within 14 days if there are requirements you need to fulfil. If our assessment shows you have no requirements, your Section 73 Compliance Certificate will be issued within 14 days.

Sign up for Sydney Water Tap in®
Sydney Water Tap in gives you access to convenient online Sydney Water application forms for all sorts of building and development projects, and provides step-by-step instructions on what you need to support them.

Apply now

Who can construct required works

If you need to do work before we can issue your Section 73 Compliance Certificate, you can either continue to use Sydney Water Developer Direct to coordinate your water and wastewater (sewer) works or change to a water servicing coordinator.

  • If you stay with us, 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.
  • If you decide to use a water servicing coordinator, they'll become your new point of contact with us. They'll provide a new servicing design, and you'll need to enter into a contract with them to manage your application and construction with a listed provider. Once your construction is finished and inspected, your coordinator will send us a completion package for approval. Once we're satisfied, we'll give your Section 73 Compliance Certificate to them.

Charges to expect

It costs $1,053.81 (inc. GST) to apply for your Section 73 Compliance Certificate through Sydney Water Developer Direct. The application fee covers:

  • assessment of your building plans and development application
  • your Notice of Requirements if you need to construct something
  • a sewer service diagram
  • a fixed price quote (valid for 60 days) for any construction work outlined in your Notice of Requirements
  • your Section 73 Compliance Certificate and full Building Plan Approval once you’ve met all of our requirements.

If you have to build or construct something outlined in your Notice of Requirements letter, we'll provide a fixed price quote for the work. In general, most developments need a new wastewater (sewer) connection point constructed and a water service for each new lot as a minimum. 

Construction costs are charged at a market rate and aren't included in your application fees. Costs you'll need to consider include building new pipes to connect to your property, equipment hire, clearing your site, road opening permits and inspection fees, and concrete encasement of pipes and concrete piering fees.

Prices vary between water servicing coordinators. Before you choose a coordinator, ask how much they charge for different services, including project management and administration, design, drawing and planning, inspections and certification, road openings, and any costs associated with entry to neighbouring properties.

You may need to pay for other applications or services to complete your application, for example:

  • Pegouts (Service Protection Reports)
    You may need a pegout if your development is close to one of our assets. A pegout tells you exactly where our pipes and assets are, and what the soil conditions are on the site. We use this information to work out if you need to take extra protection steps, such as encasing a wastewater main in concrete or installing concrete piers.
  • Statement of available pressure and flow
    This is used to check if there's enough water or pressure available in the nearest water main to serve your new development.

If you're building a granny flat

If you're building a secondary home or granny flat that's been approved by your council under the complying development provisions under the State Environmental Planning Policy (Affordable Rental Housing), the AHSEPP, you don't need a Section 73 Compliance Certificate. Find more detail in our Requirements for secondary dwellings and granny flats (330KB) fact sheet.

You still need to apply for full building plan approval for any building or excavation work on your property. Apply at Sydney Water Tap in.