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Varying Approvals in ROVER | RVSA Ready

Varying Approvals in ROVER

Applying to change or update a current approval

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Under the Road Vehicle Standards Act 2018, approval holders, and those authorised to act on their behalf, may apply to the Department to vary their approvals. The Department considers applications to change or update current approvals granted under the Road Vehicle Standards legislation.

Advisory notices are not approvals and are therefore not covered by the variation provisions.

Varying administrative information compared with varying approvals

The RVS legislation distinguishes between applicants who apply to:

  • change administrative information, for example contact information, associated with an approval, and
  • vary their approval, including the scope of what the approval allows them to do. Examples include requests to modify, add, remove or change approval conditions, update the supporting evidence for an approval, update an approval to account for changes to national road vehicle standards, or add or remove road vehicle variants covered in a vehicle type approval.

The process for applying to vary an approval through ROVER allows a single application to vary both the administrative information linked to the approval and the approval itself at the same time. For efficiency, it is strongly encouraged to submit a single application covering all the proposed changes to an approval.

Varying administrative information

The Department can consider applications to change administrative information linked to an RVS approval, on the condition that the approval holder provides the documentation and evidence required to support their requested change.

Who may apply to vary an approval?

The Department will accept an application to vary an approval from the approval holder or a person they authorise to act on their behalf. The My Approvals section in ROVER controls who can apply to vary an approval by listing:

  • the approvals a registered user has approval holder status for, and
  • all approvals a registered ROVER user has been granted an authority to act on.

How to apply to vary an approval

By selecting the Vary action in the My Approvals section of the approval holder’s ROVER account, ROVER will pre-populate the application with some information from the existing approval. There are five key steps that help identify the scope of changes to an approval and provide relevant supporting material. Refer to Table 1 of the guide to varying approvals in ROVER.

ROVER does not allow applicants to modify an application after it is submitted. ROVER only allows a single, active variation application for an approval at any one time. The Department must finalise an open variation application before ROVER will accept a new variation application for the same approval.

If further changes are required after submitting a variation application for assessment, the approval holder may either:

  1. withdraw the application and recommence the application process, if the Department has not commenced its assessment, or
  2. wait for the Department to decide the variation application, pay the application fee where applicable and receive a decision. The approval holder can then submit a new application after assessment.

How long can a decision take?

The RVS legislation does not apply a formal timeframe for the Department to assess variation applications. In keeping with standard assessment timeframes, the Department expects that it will take:

  • 30 business days to decide applications to vary testing facility approvals, and
  • 60 business days to decide applications to vary vehicle type approvals and component type approvals.

Applicants should note that the Department assesses applications in the order they are received, and that any time an applicant takes to respond to a request for further information does not count towards these indicative timeframes.

Application fees

Variation applications may incur an application fee as follows:

  • $140, non-IWVTA based vehicle type approval for a light goods vehicle
  • $50, non-IWVTA based vehicle type approval for a light trailer
  • $75, testing facility approval
  • $0, component type approval.

For more information on fees, refer to Table 2 of the guide to varying approvals in ROVER. If further assistance is required, see the Department’s contact us page.