Plenty of Queensland houses carry something the council has never seen. A deck built over a long weekend. A carport added by an owner two owners ago. A patio that was open when it was approved and enclosed years later. An under-house space that quietly became a bedroom. Much of that work was done to a reasonable standard, and that is not the point. What matters when the property is valued is whether the work has approval, whether it could get approval, and what a buyer pays for a structure sitting outside the record.

What unapproved actually means

Building work in Queensland generally needs approval before it starts, obtained through a building certifier or the local council, and a final sign off once it is finished. Some minor work is exempt. Those exemptions are specific, turning on floor area, height above ground, roof cover and distance from boundaries, and they are almost always narrower than an owner assumes.

A second category catches people out. Work that was approved but never finalised, where the approval lapsed or the final certificate was never issued, is not compliant either. The record shows a beginning and no end, and to a valuer, a lender or a buyer’s solicitor that sits close to no approval at all.

What the inspection picks up

A valuer is not a building certifier, and a valuation inspection is not a compliance audit. But a valuer inspecting houses every week develops an eye for work that does not match the paperwork, and the report deals with what the inspection reveals. The usual signals:

  • Roofline and footprint. An addition whose roof pitch or cladding does not match the original, or a footprint larger than the plans the council holds.
  • Enclosure. The most common one in South East Queensland. An approved open patio or carport that has since gained walls, windows or a slab, turning an outdoor structure into enclosed floor area with a different set of requirements.
  • Wet areas and services. A bathroom, kitchenette or laundry in a shed or under the house, where plumbing and drainage have been extended with no record of licensed work.
  • Siting. A structure hard against a boundary, over an easement or a sewer, or inside a setback. Siting is the hardest to resolve, because the answer is often that it cannot stay where it is.
  • Secondary dwellings. A self-contained flat downstairs, or a converted shed presented as rentable. Whether a second dwelling is permitted is a planning question for the council.

How the lack of approval affects value

There is no standard deduction. The effect turns on what the market does with the structure and on what it would take to regularise it. Where the work is minor, plainly sound and readily approvable, buyers in most Brisbane markets pay close to what they would pay with the paperwork in order, and the sales evidence shows that. Where the work is substantial, the analysis changes. The valuer weighs the cost of bringing it to a compliant standard, the fees to get it assessed, the delay, and the real chance that part of it has to come out. A structure that cannot be approved where it stands is a liability, not an improvement.

The common outcome in a report is that the unapproved area is not counted as it presents. A room that cannot be described as an approved bedroom is not compared against approved bedrooms in the sales evidence, and an enclosed patio without approval does not join the living area figure. The valuer states the assumption the figure rests on, so the reader knows what has been valued and what has not. An owner who has enjoyed the extra room for a decade sees its benefit clearly, and the valuer is not arguing with that. The report answers the narrower question of what an informed purchaser, taking on the risk with the property, would pay.

Why lenders react the way they do

A mortgage security valuation is written for a lender that may one day have to sell the property, so unapproved work goes in the report and flows through to the risk ratings a lender reads first. Responses vary between lenders and loan products. Some accept the valuation with the structure excluded from value. Some decline to lend until the work is certified or removed. Some approve the loan and hold back part of the advance until evidence is produced.

Owners are often surprised that a house can carry a solid market valuation and still trip a lender’s requirements. The two documents answer different questions, and a lender is also weighing insurability and how cleanly the security could be realised.

Rectification and retrospective certification

Unapproved work is often fixable. In general terms the path runs through a building certifier, who assesses what exists and determines what compliance requires. That can mean engineering certification for footings or framing, opening up parts of the structure so what sits behind can be inspected, evidence of licensed plumbing or electrical work, and physical rectification before anything is signed off. Where the problem is siting or planning rather than construction, an application to the council may be needed as well, decided on the merits.

Some work cannot be regularised, and the honest answer is removal. Councils hold enforcement powers, and once an unapproved structure comes to their attention an owner can be required to comply or remove it. Anyone in that position should take advice from a certifier and, where the exposure is significant, a solicitor. What a valuation contributes is the number, the value as it stands set against the value it would carry with the work approved.

Disclosure beats discovery

For a seller, the worst version of this is late discovery. A buyer learns of it through their building inspection, a search or their lender’s valuer, and by then it arrives with the timing and framing of a problem. Contracts get renegotiated hardest at that moment. A seller who knows about the deck and has the position documented, whether by a certifier’s view or a quote for rectification, negotiates from better ground than one answering a question they were not ready for.

For a buyer, the question is who carries the risk and how it is priced. Contracts allocate that risk in different ways, and a solicitor advises on the conditions and searches that suit the purchase. Buying a house with an unapproved structure is a reasonable commercial decision, provided the price reflects the position and the cost of putting it right has been estimated rather than assumed.

If a valuation is needed on a property where something has been built without approval, whether for a sale, a lender or a legal matter, call the practice on 07 5550 4055 and set out the situation.