Section 10.7 certificate, Hornsby Shire Council: cost, timing and what it doesn't cover

Cost and timing at Hornsby Shire Council

Fees change on 1 July. These are the 2026-27 figures. Check the council's current fees and charges before you pay.

How to apply at Hornsby Shire Council

Hornsby issues planning certificates through its own Infor ePathway system, not through the NSW Planning Portal's optional online service.

Online, through the certificate portal

Start at council's New Certificate page on ePathway and choose the planning certificate you need. Council's Buying and selling your property page is the plain-English route in.

Questions before you lodge

Council's contact for certificate questions is 9847 6760, and the mailbox is devmail@hornsby.nsw.gov.au. Because Hornsby publishes neither a standard turnaround nor an urgent option for planning certificates, that call is the only way to find out how long yours will take, and it is worth making before exchange dates are set.

Two things to know about Hornsby's fee

• The fee portal lists the council under its legal name, The Council of the Shire of Hornsby. It is the same body.
• Hornsby's schedule points straight at Schedule 4 of the EP&A Regulation rather than quoting a council-set figure, so its price moves whenever the state indexes the fee unit each 1 July.

What the certificate tells you

A section 10.7(2) certificate is the council's statement of the planning rules that apply to a parcel of land on the day it is issued. The contents are prescribed by Schedule 2 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021, so every NSW council answers the same list:

• Which instruments apply. The local environmental plan, state planning policies, development control plans and contributions plans that cover the land.
• Zone and uses. The zone, what is permitted with and without consent, what is prohibited, and any minimum lot size rule for building a dwelling.
• Heritage. Whether the land is a heritage item or sits in a conservation area.
• Hazard notations. Whether the land is bush fire prone, whether flood related development controls apply, and any mine subsidence, loose-fill asbestos or contaminated land notice.
• Acquisition and roads. Whether the land is reserved for acquisition or affected by road widening, and whether complying or exempt development is available.

A 10.7(5) certificate adds the council's advice on other matters affecting the land that it is aware of. It is discretionary: each council decides what goes in, so the same section buys different advice in different council areas. In NSW the vendor must attach a 10.7(2) certificate to the contract for sale, so for most purchases you read one before you ever order one.

What it doesn't cover in Hornsby Shire

In Hornsby the certificate's most consequential line is a single word: whether the land is bush fire prone. What that word leaves out is where the cost sits.

What "bush fire prone" means for this lot

Council identifies approximately 40 per cent of properties in the Shire, 28,592 properties covering 41,343 hectares, as Bush Fire Prone Land. The certificate tells you whether yours is one of them and nothing more. It does not say which vegetation category applies, how much of the lot is affected, or the bushfire attack level a new build or extension would have to meet, which is what drives construction cost and what your insurer prices. Council's rule for the map is broad: "if either the mapped vegetation or the buffer intersects your property, the property is considered to be bush fire prone", so a lot can carry the notation because a buffer clips one back corner. The Bushfire Prone Land map on council's IntraMaps shows the vegetation and buffer categories that the certificate collapses to a yes.

Whether the property floods

The certificate states whether flood related development controls apply. Hornsby's own flood picture is newer and more specific: the draft Flood Risk Management Study and Plan on Your Say Hornsby comes with an Interactive Flood Map and identifies 3,872 urban properties, about 9 per cent of properties in the Shire, as flood prone. A draft plan is not yet a control, so a property can appear on that map today with no flood notation on its certificate.

Applications on neighbouring lots

The certificate covers one parcel. Hornsby's DA tracker on ePathway holds applications dating back to 2004, which is long enough to see what a street has been approved for and what is pending next door. That search is yours to run; the certificate will not do it.

The usual omissions

No planning certificate records easements (those are on title), distances to the station or shops, school catchments, or whether the listing's claims hold up. Those are separate lookups, and Prova's what's checked list is built around them.

Local context: the bushfire interface

With roughly four in ten properties mapped as bush fire prone, the bushfire interface is Hornsby Shire's dominant planning constraint, and the notation is common enough that it should be read as a cost line rather than a rarity. Buyers used to inner Sydney tend to read "bush fire prone" as a red flag; in Hornsby it is better read as a line item that needs a number attached. The number comes from a bushfire attack level assessment, not from the certificate, and it decides whether the renovation you have in mind is a routine job or a specialised one.

The buffer rule is what catches people. Because the mapping treats a lot as prone when the buffer around mapped vegetation touches any part of it, two neighbouring houses of the same age and construction can sit on opposite sides of the line, and a lot on a suburban street with no trees of its own can be prone because of the reserve behind the back fence. Look at the map before you look at the certificate, so the yes does not surprise you.

Flooding is the smaller but changing risk. Nine per cent of properties is not a small number in absolute terms, 3,872 urban lots, and the flood risk management plan that maps them is still in draft. Until it is adopted and reflected in controls, the certificate and the map can disagree, and the map is the one that describes the water.

How to read your certificate when it arrives

1. Match the land description. Check the lot and deposited plan number and the address against the contract. A certificate for the wrong parcel is worthless.
2. Check the issue date. The certificate speaks as at that date. If the one attached to the contract is months old, ask your conveyancer whether a fresh one is worth ordering.
3. Read the permitted-uses list, not just the zone code. A use appearing under "permitted with consent" means you may apply, not that you will be approved.
4. Treat every "yes" on a hazard item as a question, not a verdict. Bush fire prone land calls for a bushfire attack level assessment. Flood related controls call for the council's flood information. A contaminated land notice calls for the EPA record.
5. Note what is absent. Nearby applications, easements, distances and school catchments are not on the certificate and need their own sources.
6. Take anything you don't understand to your conveyancer before exchange, while it can still change the price or the decision.

Questions about Hornsby 10.7 certificates