Granny flat rules in Victoria

Each residential zone has a table of uses. In the General Residential Zone, small second dwelling sits in Section 1, which is the list of uses that do not need a planning permit, with three conditions attached. The Neighbourhood Residential Zone and the Low Density Residential Zone carry the same Section 1 entry with the same first two conditions, and the Low Density Residential Zone adds servicing requirements.

The conditions matter. There must be no more than one dwelling already on the lot, the small second dwelling must be the only one on the lot, and reticulated natural gas must not be supplied to it. If a condition is not met the use drops into Section 3 of the table and is prohibited in that zone, so a second granny flat on a lot, or a granny flat behind a dual occupancy, is not an option.

Clause 54, which carries the siting standards, lists the zones it applies to. They are the Mixed Use Zone, Township Zone, Residential Growth Zone, General Residential Zone, Neighbourhood Residential Zone and Housing Choice and Transport Zone. Outside those zones you need to read the zone's own table of uses at your parcel.

The small second dwelling rules sit alongside the ordinary dwelling rules rather than replacing them. The existing house remains a dwelling in Section 1, and if the household later wants to convert the granny flat into a full second dwelling, or extend it past the definition, the project becomes two dwellings on a lot and the Clause 55 permit pathway applies from that point.

Use and buildings are separate questions in Victoria. Even where the use is in Section 1, the zone has its own trigger for constructing the building. In the General Residential Zone a planning permit is required to construct or extend a small second dwelling only where the lot is less than 300 square metres. The Neighbourhood Residential Zone has the same wording in its clause 32.09-6.

On a lot of 300 square metres or more with no overlay trigger, there is no planning permit for the building either. That does not mean anything goes. The zone's minimum garden area rule and maximum building height apply whether or not a permit is needed, and the Building Regulations then carry the siting standards through the building permit.

Overlays are the usual reason a granny flat still needs a planning permit. A Heritage Overlay, Design and Development Overlay, Bushfire Management Overlay, flood overlays and others can each require a permit for buildings and works. Whether one applies is a parcel question, not a zone question.

Where a permit is needed on a small lot and the design meets the listed Clause 54 standards, the application is a VicSmart class, which is the streamlined assessment path. The zone also exempts such an application from notice and third party review when the standards are met.

Clause 54 carries two standards written only for small second dwellings. The first is siting: the walls must sit behind the front wall of the existing house as it faces the frontage, and porches, pergolas, verandahs and eaves cannot poke forward of that line. The Building Regulations repeat the same rule as regulation 74A for building permits, so it applies even when no planning permit is needed.

The second is access. The granny flat needs a clear path from the frontage at least 1 metre wide, widening to 1.8 metres if the path runs longer than 30 metres, with 2 metres of clear height, a gradient no steeper than 1 in 14 and a cross fall no steeper than 1 in 40, on a sealed or all-weather surface.

The general Clause 54 standards for side and rear setbacks, walls on boundaries, site coverage, tree canopy, daylight, overshadowing and overlooking also apply. Standards for front fences do not apply to a small second dwelling.

The minimum garden area rule in the zone is the one most likely to stop a granny flat on a mid-sized suburban lot. It applies to an application to construct a small second dwelling and scales with lot size from 25 per cent to 35 per cent, unless the zone schedule exempts the land.

A small second dwelling cannot be cut off onto its own title. The subdivision clause in each residential zone says a permit must not be granted that would create a separate lot for land containing a small second dwelling. If separate titles are the goal, the project is a dual occupancy under Clause 55, not a granny flat.

Before December 2023 Victoria's granny flat was the dependent person's unit, a movable building for a person dependent on a resident of the main house. Clause 52.04 keeps transitional rules for those units, but that clause has an expiry written into it and ceases to have effect after 28 March 2027. New projects should be planned as small second dwellings.