How do you know your building plans are approved?

A quick walk-through with Lutho from our office.

Clients ask us this more often than you’d think: “Are my plans approved yet?” and, just as often, “How would I know?” So I sat down with Lutho, who handles our municipal submissions at noh, to walk through how it actually works in Nelson Mandela Bay.

The proof is one piece of paper

You know your plans are approved when you receive a Building Plan Details notification from the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro. It sets out the details of your project (the erf, the owner, the type of building work) and then, crucially, a Status line.

If that line says Approved, you have approved building plans. If it doesn’t, you don’t. It really is that binary. A plan that is “in circulation”, “with the committee” or “nearly there” is not an approved plan, and you shouldn’t start building, sell, or arrange finance as though it were.

How the submission cycle works

I asked Lutho to explain what happens between handing the drawings in and getting that notification.

• New submissions must be lodged by Wednesday.
• Resubmissions (plans that come back with comments and are corrected) can go in until Thursday.
• Both then go to the plan approval meeting on the following Friday.

After the Friday meeting the outcome comes out, these days often as a WhatsApp notification telling you the feedback is ready. That notification is what you’ve been waiting for, but it isn’t quite the end of the process.

The stamped jacket

What you really want is the stamped copy. Lutho explained it for anyone who has never submitted plans before.

When you lodge plans you hand in five copies: two in colour and three in black and white. The municipality does its checks and takes the plans to the meeting. Once they’re approved, one copy comes back to you with the municipal approval stamp on it. That’s the “stamped jacket”, and it’s collected from the municipality, in this case on the Thursday after the notification.

Keep that stamped set safe. It’s the document your builder, your bank, your conveyancer and, eventually, the building inspector at occupation stage will want to see.

In short

1. Your plans are approved only when the Metro’s Building Plan Details notification says Status: Approved.
2. New submissions close on Wednesday, resubmissions on Thursday, for the following Friday’s meeting.
3. Submit five sets (two colour, three black and white). You get one stamped set back.
4. Collect and keep the stamped set. It’s your proof.

If you have questions about getting your plans through Nelson Mandela Bay, give Lutho a call. She knows all the details.