Treat the pontoon as a separate legal and engineering asset during property due diligence.
Ask the vendor for
- waterfront licence/lease/tenure
- approved DA/plans
- engineering drawings
- installation date
- invoices/builder
- electrical certificate
- insurance claims
- maintenance records
- annual fees/rent
- last structural inspection
Physically compare approval to reality
Measure:
- pontoon length/width
- gangway
- pile count/location
- added jet-ski docks
- boat lifts
- storage devices
- extra piles
Unauthorised additions can become the buyer's problem.
NSW specific risk
Crown Lands explicitly tells purchasers to conduct a conveyancing search for the licence purpose, authorised structures and debt. Debt can transfer at settlement if not cleared.
Valuation
A legal, well-engineered pontoon can add utility to waterfront property. An unapproved, corroded or non-transferable structure can create removal and remediation cost. Value the structure only after checking tenure and condition.
Buy the paperwork, not the view
A pontoon presented as a feature of a waterfront property is an asset only if it is approved, certified, maintained and transferable. If it is none of those, it is an inherited liability — and the cost of regularising or removing an unapproved structure lands on the new owner.
Do this work during due diligence, while you still have the option of walking away or adjusting the price.
What to obtain before exchange
- The approval or licence for the structure, current and in the vendor's name.
- Whether the approval runs with the land or with the person, and what transfer requires.
- Engineering certification and as-built drawings.
- Evidence that any conditions imposed at approval were discharged.
- The maintenance history, particularly anode replacement and structural inspections.
- Any warranty documents and whether they transfer.
- Tenure over the land and bed the structure occupies, if it is not freehold.
Physical inspection
- Freeboard and trim under no load and, if possible, under load.
- Restraint hardware through the full movement range.
- Connections, fasteners and any sign of movement or repair.
- Corrosion at every dissimilar-metal junction, and anode condition.
- Deck surface, edges, and the gangway transition at both ends.
- Grounding evidence at low water, if the site dries.
Questions for the vendor's agent, in writing
- Who built the structure, and when?
- Has it been modified since approval, and was that approved?
- Are there outstanding obligations — inspections, renewals, fees, removal conditions?
- Has any authority ever raised an issue about the structure?
Where purchasers get caught
- Assuming an existing structure is approved because it exists.
- Assuming the title reaches the water when the bed is Crown land.
- Discovering after settlement that a licence is not transferable.
- Inheriting a structure near the end of its life, with no records to show what has been done.
Questions buyers ask
Can I make approval of the pontoon a condition of purchase?
Contract terms are a matter for your solicitor, but the information above is what would support such a condition. Raise it early, because it is far easier to resolve before exchange.
What if the structure turns out to be unapproved?
Options usually range from applying to regularise it to removing it, and both cost money and time. Establish which authority is involved and what they require before assuming it can be fixed easily.