Preparing your liquor licence application

Applicant structure and personal particulars

Confirm you know the structure of the applicant entity. You will need to know the details (full name, address and date of birth) of all individuals as provided for within your structure. This includes all directors and individuals holding shares if the applicant entity includes a company.

If the individuals are known to us and were approved within the last 5 years, they must complete a Personal Particulars LLD/5A form (link below) to be uploaded with the application. All others must complete a Personal Particulars LLD/5 (link below) form.

Personal particulars forms (opens a new window)

Section 40 and Section 39 certificates

Investigate what planning approval is required. You will need to contact your local government (opens a new window) or local planning authority to investigate this.

Planning approval is usually issued either as a Section 40 Certificate of local planning authority or a development approval. If your planning approval is in another form, lodge it with your application and you will be advised if it can be accepted. The Section 39 Certificate is a Certificate of Local Government certifying the premises meets the legislative standards needed to begin trading.

You do not need planning approval or the Section 39 Certificate to apply for your licence, but it will need to be provided before the licence, if granted, can be activated.

Download forms for the Section 40 and Section 39 certificates (opens a new window)

Public interest assessment

Licence applications that require a public interest assessment are usually advertised.

The public interest assessment outlines how a community will be impacted and provides an outline of how the applicant will manage any impact.

Public interest assessment (opens a new window)

Licences requiring a public interest assessment:

• Hotel/Hotel Restricted
• Tavern/Tavern Restricted
• Liquor Store
• Nightclub.

If you are applying for a special facility licence you will be advised if a public interest assessment is required.

Licences not requiring a public interest assessment:

• Small Bar
• Restaurant
• Wholesaler
• Producer
• Club/Club Restricted.

The legislation doesn’t require a public interest submission to be prepared by legal counsel or industry consultants.

Section 46 Submissions

All applications for special facility licences must lodge a submission justifying why none of the standard licence types (opens a new window) are suitable for your manner of trade as a special facility licence cannot be granted where another licence type is applicable. An easy way to present this information is in a table. The example below shows the licences you need to include within your submission and a few possible reasons that might be applicable:

Depending on your proposed manner of trade you may need to go into more detail than provided above to justify your reasoning.

Outlet Density Submissions — hotel, tavern and liquor stores

Make sure you have checked your premises does not fall within the applications that cannot be considered, due to retail floor size and location.

All applications for a hotel, tavern or liquor store licence require a submission detailing how local packaged liquor requirements can't be reasonably met by existing packaged liquor premises in the locality.

Outlet density – packaged liquor premises (opens a new window)

Packaged liquor premises over 400m² (opens a new window)

Plans

Floor plans for the premises are to be on at least A3 size paper or larger and drawn to a scale of 1:100. They may be submitted electronically.

Ensure the floor plans clearly depict the packaged liquor (retail) sale areas for hotel, tavern and liquor store licences. In the case of a vineyard a site plan should show the location and size of the vineyard.

Standards of licensed premises policy (opens a new window)

Certificate of Title

This can be obtained from the freehold owner or through Landgate.

Mandatory training

With the exception of incorporated clubs applying for club or club restricted licences, all permanent licence applicants must include evidence that at least one person in the licensee entity has completed the required training. For example:

• Licensee company — a director must be trained
• Licensee partnership – a person within one of the partnership entities must be trained; and or
• If it is an unincorporated club the trustee nominated for the licence will need to complete the training.

Mandatory training policy (opens a new window)

Harm minimisation

This is required for all applications except wholesaler applications.

The harm minimisation documentation consists of three distinct sections:

• house management policy
• code of conduct
• management plan.

Harm minimisation policy (opens a new window)

Extended trading permits

Some extended trading permits require their own planning approval (ongoing hours, cellar door, dining area). This should be sought if you are applying for the extended trading permit with your grant application.

An ongoing hours permit application requires its own public interest assessment as well as one required for the licence application if applicable. For small bar applications the only public interest assessment required is for the ongoing hours component.

Extended trading permits (opens a new window)

Extended trading permit online lodgement guide (opens a new window)

Next step: lodging your liquor licence application