Infrastructure charges appeals
You can appeal to the Development Tribunals (or the Planning and Environment Court) about matters relating to infrastructure charge decisions.
Appeals lodged with the Development Tribunals are generally processed faster than through the Planning and Environment Court, and are conducted in an informal matter.
The chairperson of a tribunal established to decide an appeal about an infrastructure matter must be a lawyer.
Applicants may have legal representative for the purposes of completing the appeal application and supporting documentation; however, a legal representative isn’t permitted to attend an appeal hearing.
See schedule 1 of the Planning Act 2016 for appeal rights to the tribunals.
What you can appeal
You can appeal the following to either the Development Tribunals or the Planning and Environment Court:
- a notice involving an error relating to
- the application of the relevant adopted charge
- the working out of extra demand (for section 120)
- an offset or refund
- a lack of decision about an offset or refund
- the timing for providing the refund (if the infrastructure charges notice states a refund will be provided).
What you can’t appeal
You can’t appeal the following to either the Development Tribunals or the Planning and Environment Court:
- an adopted charge in a charges resolution
- the establishment cost in a local government infrastructure plan
- the cost of infrastructure decided using the method included in the local government’s charges resolution.
You can’t appeal the following to the Development Tribunals, but you may appeal to the Planning and Environment Court:
- a charge amount that is so unreasonable that no reasonable, relevant local government could have imposed the amount.
Time frames
Generally, you must lodge your appeal within 20 business days of receiving the notice. However, there are provisions in the Planning Act (e.g. sections 125 and 126) for extending the appeal period in certain circumstances.