Victoria defines a pergola in regulation 5 of the Building Regulations 2018, and the definition turns on the word “unroofed” (Building Regulations 2018 (Vic), reg 5). The version read here is authorised version 031, which takes in amendments as at 1 September 2026.
General informationGeneral information summarised by Dotto, not building or legal advice about any structure. The Building and Plumbing Commission’s pages, linked on this page, are the official place to check, and in Victoria a building permit comes from a building surveyor, private or municipal.
Dotto is not a builder, an installer or a building certifier. Dotto holds no builder’s, electrical or other trade licence. It does not design, supply, build, install, offer, contract for or arrange any pergola or building work, and does not refer anyone to a builder or supplier. This is general information, not advice.
None of these definitions says whether a pergola with an opening roof needs a building permit.
The definition, in plain words
Summary by Dotto of regulation 5A pergola is a structure that stays open and has no roof over it. It may still carry a cover, but only a loosely woven one that is permeable.
The definition itself is in the authorised Building Regulations 2018, in the list of defined terms in regulation 5. Only the defined term is shown in quotation marks on this page; the rest of the wording is the Regulations’ own and is summarised, not copied.
Two things in that definition do the work. The first is the absence of a roof. The second is the kind of cover allowed in its place: a loosely woven, permeable material. A structure with a solid roof meets neither, and the Regulations’ word for what is allowed is a covering, not a roof.
How the regulator restates it
The Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC) puts the same idea in two short sentences on its landscaping page: a pergola is open and has no roof, and if it has a cover, that cover may be an open-weave material that is permeable. The page files pergolas under one heading with shade structures that have permeable coverings, and it was last updated on 30 June 2026.
The BPC also says a pergola needs no building permit when it meets all three of these limits: it is no more than 3.6 metres high, its floor area is no more than 20 square metres, and it satisfies the siting requirements in Schedule 3 of the Building Regulations 2018, which deal with where it is placed on the allotment. A larger pergola needs a permit. These figures are as at the BPC page’s update of 30 June 2026.
Those limits are written for a pergola. Whether a particular structure is a pergola at all is the question the definition answers, and nothing in the BPC’s page or in regulation 5 speaks of a roof that opens and closes.
Three structures the regulator describes with a roof
A verandah
The BPC describes a verandah as roofed and usually attached to a house, and says it needs a building permit.
A gazebo or cabana
These usually stand on their own and have a roof, and the BPC says a permit is usually needed. It notes an exemption for very small ones used as non-habitable buildings, under 10 square metres.
A shade structure
The BPC’s information sheet on domestic building work describes a shade structure as open, held up by one or more posts or by an anchoring mechanism, whose roof covering is fabric. In some circumstances, it says, a shade structure may be treated as a pergola and need no building permit. In that case, the sheet adds, the sail has to be built to withstand the loads it may carry and to leave any building it is fixed to unharmed.
Set side by side, the regulator’s wording gives a pergola no roof, a shade structure a fabric roof covering, and a verandah or gazebo a roof. A covering that is sometimes open and sometimes closed is not described in any of them.
Two kinds of permit
A definition in the Building Regulations belongs to the building system. Victoria also has planning permits: the local council issues them, they allow land to be developed or used in a stated way, and where one is needed it has to be in hand before a building permit can be obtained.
On the building side, the person who issues a permit is a building surveyor, either in private practice or at a council. The BPC says the surveyor must be registered, and is appointed before an application is made.
Who builds a shade structure
The BPC registers domestic builders in classes, and one class is limited to building shade structures for homes. Its class for non-habitable structures, the sheet says, does not include electrical and plumbing work that must be done by licensed practitioners. Which class or licence a particular job calls for is a question for the BPC.