Knockdown-Rebuild Site Preparation Across Melbourne

Working to the builder's date, not ours

A knockdown-rebuild has one deadline that matters: the day your builder can put a surveyor on the block. Everything else is scheduling. Once we have that date we work backwards — abolishment applications first because they are the slowest, then the permit, then the asbestos, then the machines.

We will also tell you honestly if the date is not achievable. An electricity abolishment lodged in December is not going to be done in January, and no amount of chasing changes that. Knowing it in week one is worth far more than being told in week six.

Service abolishment is the long pole

Disconnection is not abolishment. Turning the power off at the meter does not let a machine near the building — the supply has to be physically removed and the distributor has to certify it. Depending on the distributor and the time of year, that is commonly four to eight weeks from lodgement, and it cannot be compressed by good intentions.

We lodge and track:

- **Electricity abolishment** with the relevant distributor for your address — Citipower, Powercor, AusNet, United Energy or Jemena, depending on which side of Melbourne you are on - **Gas abolishment** back to the main, not just a meter removal - **Water** meter removal and, where the new build needs it, the disconnection or capping arrangements your plumber will ask about - **Telecommunications** — the old copper lead-in and any NBN equipment on the building

What we need from you

Proof of ownership, a site plan or title, and your builder's contact. That is genuinely most of it. Distributors will not accept an abolishment application from a contractor with nothing linking them to the property, so the paperwork has to name you properly — we prepare it, you sign it.

Clearing to a level your surveyor can use

The handover point is a block cleared, grubbed, levelled and compacted, with the site fence still up and a clean crossover. We photograph the finished levels and mark where old services ran, because six weeks later when the plumber is looking for a sewer point, nobody remembers.

If your build needs a cut-and-fill, retaining removal or a rock report, that is a conversation to have while the machines are still on site — bringing them back is the most expensive way to do it.

Sequencing around a demolition permit

We can quote and program the work before your building permit for the new dwelling is issued, and in most cases the demolition permit and the report and consent under Section 29A run in parallel with your builder's documentation. Starting that early is the single biggest lever on your overall timeline.