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98: Processing application for certificate of acceptance
or “A city council has 20 days to say yes or no to a special building paper, but can ask for more information if needed.”
You could also call this:

“A building official gives you a special paper when they check and approve work on your house.”

When you get a certificate of acceptance, it needs to be in a special form that’s set by law. If your building work means you need a compliance schedule, or if you need to change an existing one, that schedule must be attached to your certificate.

Sometimes, the local council (which the law calls a territorial authority) might not be able to check all of your building work. If this happens, they can give you a certificate that says which parts they were able to look at.

It’s important to know that the council is only responsible for the parts of the work they could actually inspect. This means they’re not liable for any problems with parts they couldn’t see or check.

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Next up: 99AA: Withholding certificate of acceptance

or “A council can hold back a certificate until you pay a fee for building work”
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Part 2 Building
Code compliance certificates, certificates of acceptance, and compliance schedules: Certificates of acceptance

99Issue of certificate of acceptance

  1. A certificate of acceptance must—

  2. be issued in the prescribed form; and
    1. have attached to it,—
      1. if a compliance schedule is required as a result of the building work, the compliance schedule for the building; or
        1. if an amendment to an existing compliance schedule is required as a result of the building work, the amended compliance schedule for the building.

        2. A certificate of acceptance may, if a territorial authority inspected the building work, be qualified to the effect that only parts of the building work were able to be inspected.

        3. A territorial authority's liability for the issue of a certificate of acceptance is limited to the same extent that the territorial authority was able to inspect the building work in question.