Following a tried and tested process for preparing to submit house plans to any municipality / Local Authority in South Africa. This should enable you to go through the submission process with a little more ease and help you understand the documents required by most local authorities in South Africa. Please keep in mind that this is a guide only and based on the regulations of the KZN areas and that requirements might be slightly different in other areas.
Before submitting your building plans to the Local Authority, various documents are to accompany your building plans. Below a self checklist of documents: (NOTE: This is an example for normal additions or new dwellings). Each document will be discussed in a little more detail.
Council Submission form
SACAP (Schedule 4) form
Power of Attorney
Engineer appointment form
Copy of latest paid-up Account.
Copy of Owners ID
SG Diagram
Zoning Certificate
Title Deed
Plans copies signed by Client / Architect/ Draughtsman
Fees for submission
Council Submission form
This form may be collected at the LA / Municipality where you will need to submit your plans OR your registered designer / architect should have them available. In most instances this is a one page form to be filled out with details e.g. the owner details, size, type, zoning, size of the building stated in the form will be used by the council to work out the plan submission fees payable for plan scrutiny, also required is the details of appointed registered designer / architect. Both the owner and designer / architect’s signatures needs to be on the application form. (NOTE: Designer includes; Draughtsman etc.)
SACAP (Schedule 4) form
This form is available and completed by the registered designer / architect whom you appoint to draw your plans. This is an appointment and mostly compliance certificate to confirm the appointed person is registered with SACAP. From 1 July 2006 no person practicing architecture will be able to submit plans without being registered with SACAP (The South African Council for the Architectural Profession.)
Power of Attorney
This will not be necessary if the owner of the property is submitting the plans. If you would like to make use of a third party or professional consultant to submit the plans and get it approved, you will need to write a letter OR complete a power of Attorney form available at some LA’s and/ or with your appointed registered designer / architect, stating that you as the registered owner permits the said appointed person to act on your behalf regarding submission, applications etc..
Engineer appointment form (SANS 10400 - Form 2)
This form can be obtained from your local authority, to be filled out by your appointed engineer stating that he / she as a professional and will take responsibility for the structural soundness of the building designed, roof type structure and do the necessary inspections on site.
Copy of Owners ID
A copy of owner’s ID document is required with the submission documents.
SG Diagram
This is document is available at your local council usually from the town planning department and contains info about the stand size, location, orientation, side lengths etc.
Zoning Certificate
This document can be obtained from you local council’s Land use rights department. The document contains information about the property’s use rights or zoning, building lines, coverage etc. allowed for the stand.
Title Deeds
There are various ways to obtain a copy: 1. Financing institution until settlement of your property loan is paid up, ask for a copy from them. 2. If the property was bought without a loan, the title deed should be requested from the attorneys. 3. The deeds office keeps all records, thus a trustworthy place to obtain the document. This document should be scrutinized carefully as it often contains a lot of additional information about the specific property and possible registered servitudes that might exist. 4. We as Architectural Professionals can also request a copy of the deeds at a minimal fee. Plans copies signed by Client / Architect/ Draughtsman The amount of plan copies required by different town or city councils varies broadly, but all local authorities will require at least one set of colour copies and normally 3 black & white copies. (NOTE: All the plans & copies are to be signed by you owner, your appointed architectural draughts person.)
Fees for submission
The fee payable for plan scrutiny also varies widely from council to council and may be anything from about R15/sqm to approx. R20/sqm at some Municipalities. There-for it is important to contact your LA to confirm the submission process. Some Municipalities have other criteria whereby they calculate fees.
Now you have all the documents completed, you are ready to submit your application to your Municipality. We wish you best of luck with your building plan submissions / approval!
