Few car shelters can be built in NSW without any approval, and an open carport is one of them. The condition is strict: your carport must satisfy each and every exempt development standard set by the state. Miss a single one and you need a complying development certificate (CDC) or a council development application (DA) before work starts.
What exempt means for a carport
Exempt development covers small projects that go ahead without any planning consent or building certificate. The carport standards are found under Part 2, State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008, usually called the Codes SEPP. The test is all or nothing. A carport that satisfies nine standards and fails the tenth is not exempt.
Some land is ruled out completely. A carport can't be exempt on a lot that holds a heritage item or draft heritage item, or in a foreshore area. In a heritage conservation area it must go in the rear yard.
The main limits to check
The planning department publishes a carport fact sheet summarising each standard. Put simply:
- Floor area: up to 20 m² where the lot is 300 m² or smaller. On larger lots the cap is 25 m². Larger lots zoned rural or R5 (large lot residential) can have up to 50 m².
- Height: 3 m maximum above existing ground level. Also, where it joins a one-storey home, its roof can't sit higher than that home's gutters.
- Open sides: a minimum of two sides must be open, and the open parts must add up to a third or more of the perimeter.
- Road setback: a clear 1 m or more behind the building line on each road frontage.
- Side and rear setbacks: 900 mm from lot boundaries in residential zones generally. Rural zones and R5 need 5 m. The roof may overhang that space but must stay 500 mm or more off the boundary.
- How many: one carport per house, or two where a secondary dwelling shares the lot with the main house.
Materials and drainage matter too. Any metal has to be factory pre-coloured with a low reflective finish. Roof water must drain to an existing stormwater system. Where the carport fixes to the house fascia, that connection has to follow a professional engineer's details. On bush fire prone land, non-combustible materials are required where the carport is closer than 5 m to a home. The work also can't reduce existing parking or vehicle access, and a new driveway crossing needs separate consent from the roads authority, which is usually council.
Why a carport ends up needing a CDC or DA
These are the usual reasons a design falls outside the exempt rules:
- It projects past the building line toward the street, for example a carport spanning the driveway in front of the home.
- It is larger than the area cap for your lot.
- It is nearer a side boundary than allowed, which happens often on narrow lots.
- The lot holds a heritage item or lies in a foreshore area.
- Walls or a roller door are planned. Once enclosed, it is no longer treated as a carport.
If exempt doesn't fit, complying development under the Housing Code may be possible, provided the lot isn't excluded and the carport satisfies that code. Otherwise the path is a DA lodged with council, then a construction certificate before building. Our CDC or DA: picking the approval your home project needs explains how the two compare.
Carports and garages are treated differently
An enclosed garage has no exempt pathway in NSW. Every garage goes through complying development or council approval. That is why the open sides rule matters so much. Fit a door across the front and the planning rules treat it as a garage.
The building code draws a similar line for fire. Under the ABCB Housing Provisions, an open carport can avoid some fire separation rules that would apply to a garage beside a house or boundary, as long as it has enough open sides, a polycarbonate or non-combustible roof, and gives no direct support to the house. A garage close to a boundary often needs a fire-resisting wall. Our article on Garages close to the boundary: fire separation and setbacks covers this in more detail.
Check before you buy the kit
Before ordering a kit or booking a builder, read your planning certificate for heritage, foreshore and bush fire listings. Measure the distances to each boundary and to the building line, and look up the zone and area of your lot. If any figure is borderline, assume approval is needed rather than guessing. A carport that turns out not to be exempt can lead to a removal order or a building information certificate application down the track.
CertifiBuild certifies carports and garages across NSW. If yours needs a CDC, a plan assessment can test the design against the Housing Code before you lodge. See our garages and carports page, or request a quote.
Local help across NSW
CertifiBuild certifies Class 1 and Class 10 work in 39 council areas. Local rules on these council pages are a good place to start: City of Canada Bay, Fairfield City Council, Blacktown City Council, Bayside Council, City of Newcastle, Cumberland City Council.
Suburb pages with local planning notes: Drummoyne, Lansvale, Marayong, Mascot, Merewether, Merrylands West, Miranda, Moorebank, Moss Vale, Mount Colah. You can also browse every service area.
Sources
- Fact sheet on exempt and complying carports and garages, NSW Department of Planning
- Exempt development: carports, NSW Planning Portal
- Housing Provisions Part 9.2, fire separation of external walls (ABCB)