Section 173 Agreement will generally be a requirement of a condition placed on your planning permit. Not all planning permits require one, but you will need to read your conditions carefully and act on it if there is a requirement to do so.
A Section 173 Agreement is a legal contract made between Council and any other party or parties, under Section 173 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. There are a number of requirements set by Council and the Title Registration Service that you, as the landowner, need to meet when entering into a Section 173 Agreement.
Why would a Section 173 Agreement be required?
An Agreement specifies what a person can or cannot allow on the land the planning permit applies to. An Agreement will provide for specific requirements set out by Council where a planning permit condition may not be enforceable or where there is a specific obligation that is required to run with the Title of the land (so that future landowners are bound by the requirement).
A S.173 Agreement may provide for:
- The prohibition, restriction or regulation of the use or development of the land.
- Conditions which the land may be used or developed for specified purposes.
- Any matters intended to be achieved or advance the objectives of planning in Victoria or the objectives of the Latrobe Planning Scheme or an amendment to the Latrobe Planning Scheme.
A S.173 Agreement may be used to:
- Establish monetary contribution for road construction.
- Prevent the further subdivision of land.
- Provide for the provision of infrastructure.
- Protect native vegetation.
- Provide for maintenance of a facility or property.
Who prepares a Section 173 Agreement?
S.173 Agreements are normally prepared by your solicitors. The cost of preparing agreements is met by you, the applicant.
This template Section 173 Agreement Standard Template is for applicants whom have been required to enter into a Section 173 agreement. The template is for simple matters only, more complex agreements should not be produced on this template, instead be drafted by a solicitor for that particular matter.
What must be considered when preparing a Section 173 Agreement?
The following requirements are set out by the Title Registration Service and should be forwarded to your solicitor to assist in the preparation of the agreement.
- Attachments must not be included with Agreements. If a reference must be made to a particular plan or permit, simply refer to its reference number, rather than attaching a copy of the document.
- In some cases, it may be appropriate to attach a diagram or plan. This should be done where only part of the land in a title is affected by the Agreement and the diagram or plan assists in defining the affected part.
- Any essential attachment must be referred to in the body of the agreement.
- Images should meet the following requirements:
- Resolution must be set to a minimum of 300 dpi for satisfactory image quality.
- All plan and survey documents must be produced in black and white in accordance with current practice. Colour and greyscale are not acceptable. Any colour and greyscale PDFs will be converted to black and white by Land Use Victoria which will result in a loss of quality.
- All pages of the PDF file must be orientated to appear upright when viewed on screen. This will ensure watermarks are applied correctly. A landscape sheet must not appear in portrait orientation (rotated 90 degrees).
What is the process for a Section 173 Agreement?
- We request your solicitors forward a draft copy of the agreement to latrobe@latrobe.vic.gov.au to ensure that all requirements set by the planning permit conditions have been included. Confirmation that the agreement is suitable to process will be directed to your solicitor.
- Your solicitor will need to email a final agreement as a Microsoft Word document including all relevant attachments as PDFs to latrobe@latrobe.vic.gov.au for processing. The agreement will be emailed to your solicitor for you to sign before being signed by Councils delegate.
- A copy of the agreement will be sent back to your solicitor for them to lodge the Agreement with the Title Registration Service.
Please note: Latrobe City Council reserves the right to have any agreement reviewed by our lawyers and any costs to be passed onto the applicant or person seeking the agreement