Before you sign a commercial lease - the approval check nobody does
Summary: check three things before you sign - that the zoning permits your use, what the premises is actually approved for, and whether your fitout triggers a building upgrade. It takes 24 to 48 hours and it is the cheapest insurance available on a commercial lease.
Every year we take calls from people who have signed a lease for premises they cannot legally use as intended. It is one of the most expensive avoidable mistakes in small business, and the check that prevents it takes two days.
The three questions
1. Does the zoning permit your use at all?
This is threshold, not negotiable. If the land use table in the council's Local Environmental Plan does not permit your use in that zone, no application quality fixes it and no landlord assurance matters.
2. What is the premises actually approved for?
The starting point is the approved use, not what the last tenant was doing. Premises operating outside their approval are common, and if you take on those premises you take on that problem.
"Retail" covers a lot of ground in ordinary speech and much less in planning terms. A shop selling goods and a cafe serving food are different land uses with different requirements, even in the same tenancy.
3. Does your fitout trigger a building upgrade?
What a pre-lease check gives you
Confirmation of permissibility. The existing approved use and any conditions attached to it - hours, capacity, ventilation restrictions. Whether the change qualifies for the fast-track complying development pathway or needs a change-of-use DA. A realistic timeframe to occupancy. And an indication of the fitout compliance cost.
That is a negotiating position, not just information. If the premises needs $80,000 of fire upgrade, that belongs in the rent negotiation.
The timeline problem
A complying development certificate can be issued in two to three weeks where the premises qualifies. A change-of-use DA is typically six to ten weeks with council plus preparation.
If your lease starts in six weeks and the premises needs a DA, you are paying rent on a space you cannot open. Knowing that before you sign gives you options - a delayed commencement date, a rent-free fitout period, or a different premises.
For food premises, there is a fourth question
Food businesses need to satisfy the environmental health and food safety framework as well as planning - food premises construction standards, mechanical exhaust, grease arrestor, waste storage, and notification as a food business. A kitchen that looks fine can require significant work.
We handle both frameworks, which is why our CDC for restaurants and cafes page exists as its own topic.
How to use this
Send us the address and what you intend to operate before you sign anything. We come back inside 48 hours. If the premises is fine, you have lost nothing. If it is not, you have saved the lease.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make the lease conditional on approval?
Often yes, and it is worth asking. A condition precedent requiring development consent or a complying development certificate before the lease commences shifts the risk substantially. Your solicitor drafts it; we can tell you what it needs to cover.
The last tenant ran a cafe. Am I safe?
Not automatically. Check whether that use was actually approved rather than just occurring, and whether your intended use is genuinely the same in planning terms. Premises operating outside their approval are more common than people expect, and inheriting that is a real risk.
Who pays for a building upgrade?
That is a lease negotiation, and it is much easier to negotiate before you sign than after. Fire safety and accessibility upgrades triggered by your fitout can be the largest single cost on an older building.
Services related to this article
Commercial & Industrial Approval
Commercial and light industrial projects span a wide range - from a cafe fitout that can be certified in two to three weeks, to a warehouse development where the capital at risk makes feasibility the first priority, not documentation.
Change of Use
A change of use application is needed when the building stays the same but what happens inside it changes - retail to cafe, warehouse to gym, office to medical suite.
CDC - Restaurants & Cafes
A cafe or restaurant fitout, and in many cases the change of use to a food premises, can be certified as complying development in as little as two to three weeks where the premises satisfies the Codes SEPP in full.
NSW Commercial Planning FAQs - Fit-Outs, Change of Use and CDCs
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NSW Light Industrial Planning FAQs - Warehouses, Zoning and Approvals
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NSW Planning Process FAQs - DA vs CDC, Clause 4.6 and Appeals
Summary: the process questions that come up regardless of project type - DA versus CDC, how a Clause 4.6 variation actually works, realistic timelines, and what to do after a refusal. Here are straight answers to the eleven questions that apply across residential, commercial and industrial projects.
Want this checked against your actual property?
General guidance can only go so far - zoning, overlays and council controls change the answer. Send us the address and we will confirm which approval pathway applies, free.