Do councils REALLY not understand tiny homes and/or hate them?
- Kayden Mitchell
- Aug 6
- 5 min read
Our Senior Broker, Jamie, sought to find out a little more about these questions recently and reached out to a number of councils directly, just to see what they'd say...
Now, we do love you all, but since we are a Vic-based company, he approached the following Victorian councils, due to familiarity:
Latrobe, Wellington, East Gippsland, Bass Coast and Surf Coast Shire (who are known to be doing a tiny home pilot program at the moment).
Not knowing who to talk to, he just rang the main phone line and hoped for the best. The first council spoken to was Wellington Shire and they readily pointed him in the direction of their 'Duty Planner' (Basically, each council has a number of town planners and they take shifts each day to answer public enquiries, thus "Duty Planner").
The Duty Planner he spoke to turned out to be quite knowledgeable about tiny homes and expressed that tiny homes were perfectly fine to be placed in Wellington Shire, as a small, secondary dwelling*. The expectations were that, if there was sewerage available, the dwelling would need to be plumbed in, and that the house was to be signed off with a building permit. Jamie asked about situations where there may not be sewerage and was told to reach out to the local water authorities for clarity...which he did... Expecting their response to be "Ask the council", he was pleasantly surprised when the person he spoke to was actually quite clear in expectations - "if there is no sewerage, we don't care, speak to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)". Again, Jamie progressed down the rabbit hole...this time expecting the EPA to have extremely strict guidelines about what would need to be done to protect the environment (a cause we wholeheartedly agree with, but figured would be a complex labyrinth of potential ways through that ultimately ended in deadends). As you may have guessed, the EPA was also HELPFUL and provided plenty of information about how to deal with human waste and grey water. This is where you may be surprised to hear that the EPA was perfectly fine with composting toilets and grey water management systems, as long as they were suitable for the land on which they were placed. "How do you find whether the land is suitable?", he asked. "You get a land suitability assessment done!", duh! Apparently council may do these themselves or have recommended people who will charge somewhere around $500 to do them. Prices varied here, so just a rough figure, give or take).
So, how would a person get a tiny home into the Wellington Shire in a way that complies with council?
1. Find land that has had a land suitability assessment done on it. If this is family or friends who own the land, this will be a lot easier, of course.
2. Get a tiny home that is built to a Class 1A standard (not always easy, granted) and has the correct means for dealing with contaminants, as required by the EPA or local water authority. If there is sewerage, expect to be asked to tap into it. It could be a greater cost, but you'll be compliant and then nobody can kick up a stink, (pun intended)
3. Get a building permit. Once council approved, you can sleep at night without worrying if council will show up and throw you out.
(Of course, there may be other smaller compliance details that may be required, but these appear to be the main items to deal with for council from what Jamie found, and should be part of any consideration of where to put your tiny home if you want to live there with full approval)
So, what about the other councils? (Let's leave Surf Coast to last)
Latrobe Shire - as above
Bass Coast Shire - as above
East Gippsland Shire - as above, EXCEPT they allow the small dwelling to be the PRIMARY residence as well!!
Ok, Surf Coast Shire.
This is about as straightforward as you can get!
Tiny homes must be on wheels and placed on private land. They can't be in a flood or fire overlay and may need to be connected to amenities. They DO NOT allow THOWs for short stay accommodation purposes, they want to have longer-term residents. Definitely check them out if you think you might be a good candidate. While chatting with Surf Coast Shire about this, he enquired about how this pilot program was going (due to end in Dec 2026) and was surprised to hear that the program had had very few applicants since its inception. We are happy to take your thoughts on why this may be the case.
In conclusion (this is starting to feel like a high school essay), councils were all open to having tiny homes in the community and recognised their need as a cheaper alternative, they just wanted to be sure that they were safe for you and the environment. Having a talk with them about their needs is going to be a bit confusing to start with for most of us (Jamie was very confused, and he eats and breathes compliance!), but not as doom-and-gloom as it may once have been perceived to be. Now, it is fair to ask why you would go through the trouble of going through council if you can most likely get away with just parking your tiny home somewhere and keeping your nose out of trouble, but we feel that the industry is progressing well and that we need to start thinking about being compliant and having conversations with councils to see how we can validate our parts in them. If everybody stays 'under the radar', this industry may very well always be considered fringe and never taken seriously. With all the great work being done by the Australian Tiny House Association, Tiny Homes Expo and many, many others in trying to get us recognised and affirmed, the mantle must be passed on to those who seek to keep this momentum going. Be brave, the council does not hate you!
*FYI. Victoria brought in new rules in 2024 that allow a small (under 60m^2), secondary dwelling to be placed on a property without needing a full council planning permit, if it is built to a class 1A standard and can get a building permit. (This means it has to be built to a standard that complies with the National Construction Code, including requirements around being structurally sound, have appropriate fire safety and amenities like a kitchen, bathroom, laundry and toilet. Pretty much what you'd want in your house, anyway!)
Last thing (we promise)... should we reach out to more states and territories to share their feelings as well? Please share your thoughts.
Make sure to check out the Geelong Tiny Home Expo!
The team at GE finance are going to be there and doing the finance talk so check it out. It is on from the Fri, 5th - Sun, 7th September, link for tickets below.
First, well done to James for digging in and doing the actual work of calling councils. That kind of legwork is rare, and it’s valuable to see how different councils respond.
Second, I want to acknowledge Phae’s comments — she’s exactly right that councils often misapply fixed-to-the-ground building regulations to Tiny Houses on Wheels (THOWs), which are in fact caravans under Australian law. The temporary, movable nature of a THOW is constantly misunderstood.
Right now, we’re seeing this play out in real time. In Bega Valley (NSW), council is trying to evict a couple from their THOW, claiming it’s an “unauthorised structure.” The matter is before the NSW Land and Environment Court. My prediction, based on more than 10 years…
WA is into building THs, but the councils seem very slow in accepting them and making a place for them. If you ring a council & ask about where you can put a TH, the reception usually says, she knows nothing about them. MOST of the councils!!!
Please, someone that knows what they're doing, and talking about, go to the councils and get them to accept them & where to put them.. please. It's so frustrating. You can buy one, get one built, build one yourself.... but you can't put it anywhere.
Also can they be put permanently on a purchased small block of land? As in a permanent home... no wheels?
It doesn't surprise me that councils don't HATE them... and it also doesn't surprise me when a council doesn't understand the following: The Tiny House is NOT FIXED TO THE LAND NECESSARILY - and because of that, there are many aspects of the NCC Energy codes that can not be done - hence it will fail the class 1a... AND - now that we have to build every single home for 'accessibility' tiny houses can't fully comply (some may be able to 'deem to satisfy' at best - and they ALL need to go to 3m wide for starters... and.... then they can't get insurance etc, etc, ,... so because they won't do the homework on what a tiny hous…