How a restump is priced
Per stump, then adjusted. The builder counts the stumps during the inspection, puts a rate on each that reflects the stump type, the depth and the ground, adds the relevelling, adds the permit and surveyor fees, and sets a rate for any bearer and joist timber found once the base boards come off. This page does not quote a figure, because two houses the same size can be a long way apart. What it does is list the things that move the number, so a quote can be read instead of just received.
What moves the price
| Factor | Why it matters on the Peninsula |
|---|---|
| Number of stumps | A weatherboard on a close bearer grid can have far more stumps than a later house on wider bearers. The count sets the base, and only an inspection produces it. |
| Access under the house | Many post-war holiday houses sit low to the ground. A subfloor with 300 mm of clearance is dug lying down with a short shovel; one with room for a small machine is a different day. Low clearance is the single most common reason two similar houses are priced apart. |
| Sand, clay or slope | Dune sand on the southern Peninsula digs quickly but the holes want to fall in and the stump needs a base that will not move. Clay around Mount Eliza, Hastings and Somerville holds water in winter and the holes go deeper. A sloping block on Arthurs Seat granite or at Mount Martha means tall stumps on one side and sometimes an engineer. |
| Steel or concrete | Precast concrete is the usual choice. Galvanised adjustable steel costs more per stump, sometimes several times more according to general industry guides, and can be relevelled later with a spanner. The stump types page weighs them. |
| Bearers and joists | Rotted or termite-eaten timber replaced while the house is on jacks. Not known until the base boards are off, and often the biggest variable on a damp subfloor. |
| Permit and surveyor | The private building surveyor's fee for the building permit, plus the Shire's lodgement fee and any report and consent. Figures below. |
| Engineer | Underpinning always needs an engineer's design. A restump on a sloping block in an erosion overlay may need a landslide risk assessment as well. |
| Getting spoil and stumps out | A wide side path and a street that takes a truck, or every barrow through a gate past a neighbour's fence on a narrow Rye or Sorrento block in January traffic. |
| Drainage and vents | Regrading under the house, new vents, sometimes an agricultural drain. Small beside the stumps, and the reason the new stumps last. |
| Full or partial | Permit, set-up and relevelling are spread across the stumps done. Replacing twenty now and the rest in three years usually costs more than doing them once. |
Fees that sit on top of the builder's price
The building permit comes from a private registered building surveyor, and the surveyor sets their own fee; ask for it in writing. Mornington Peninsula Shire does not issue building permits, but its Office of the Municipal Building Surveyor charges a set of fees for 2025-26 that can attach to a restump.
- Building permit lodgement (section 30): $138.35 in 2025-26. Paid when the surveyor lodges the permit with the Shire. Usually inside the surveyor's fee, but ask.
- Property information certificate (regulation 51(2)): $53.62 in 2025-26. Says in writing whether the lot is designated flood prone and subject to termite infestation. Needed for flood prone report and consent, and useful before buying.
- Report and consent for flood prone land (regulations 153 and 154): $329.60 per regulation in 2025-26. Where the surveyor finds the lot is designated flood prone. Needs a Melbourne Water response and a property information certificate each under three months old, and plans showing AHD levels. The surveyor tells you whether your lot is flood prone.
- Report and consent, Part 5 siting variation: $461.40 in 2025-26. Rare on a restump, unless the floor level or footprint changes.
- Report and consent, Part 6 variation: $329.60 in 2025-26. As the surveyor advises.
- Asset and Amenity Protection Permit: $360 application fee plus a $1,700 refundable bond in 2025-26. Only for building works valued $100,000 or more, and it must be held before any work or deliveries. A typical restump is well under that, but a restump bundled with a large renovation can pass it. Check with the Shire if the whole job passes $100,000.
- Easement consent. Where underpinning or new footings go over or near an easement or a council drain, the Shire's consent is needed first through its online portal, and South East Water's through its Build Over portal. This site did not find a published fee; ask the Shire.
Ask the Shire for the current figure before relying on any of these; the 2025-26 schedule is the latest this site found.
What the law adds, and when
Three thresholds under Victorian law change what the paperwork looks like, and a quote near one of them should say which side it falls on.
- Any value: registration. A builder in the business of restumping or reblocking a home must be registered with the Building and Plumbing Commission regardless of the cost of the work. The general $10,000 registration threshold does not apply to this trade.
- Over $10,000: a written contract. Consumer Affairs Victoria sets the threshold for a major domestic building contract at $10,000 under the Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995. Above it the contract must be in writing with the parties, the price or method, start and finish dates, cooling-off, warranties and variations.
- Over $20,000: Home Warranty insurance. From 1 July 2026 the builder must take out Home Warranty insurance through the Commission where the work costs more than $20,000. Before 1 July 2026 the figure was $16,000 under the old domestic building insurance scheme. The builder pays the premium and you receive a notice of cover.
- Owner-builders. A certificate of consent is needed for domestic building work over $16,000, and because of the registration rule above, owner-building a restump is rarely the route anyone takes.
Seven things a quote should name
- The number of stumps, and whether it is all of them or a listed few.
- The stump type: precast concrete, galvanised adjustable steel, or a mix, with pads and ant caps.
- The depth the holes go to, or the words firm ground below the moisture line, and on sand what the stump stands on.
- Relevelling: which bearers, to what tolerance, with steel packers.
- Bearers and joists: a rate per metre of bearer and per joist for what is found, agreed before the work starts.
- Permits and fees: who engages the building surveyor, whether the surveyor's fee and the Shire's lodgement fee are inside the price, and whether report and consent is expected.
- The builder's registration number, to check on the Commission's practitioner register, and the Home Warranty cover if the job is over $20,000.
Reading two quotes against each other
If one quote is a third cheaper than another for the same house, look for what is missing rather than what is clever. The common gaps: the surveyor's fee is excluded, the stumps are timber, the bearers are a vague extra, there is no mention of vents or drainage, or the stump count is lower because the inspection was shorter. For a holiday house, add one more: does the quote assume someone will be there to open up, or does it include the builder collecting a key from the agent in Rosebud or Sorrento and locking up after. A quote that cannot be compared on the seven lines above is a number, not a quote.
The other thing to compare is what each builder found. Two restumpers under the same house should come out with roughly the same count, and if they do not, ask each one why. One may have probed every stump and the other every third. One may have called the bearers sound from the hatch and the other crawled to the wet corner. The inspection is where the price comes from, and a longer inspection that finds more is not padding the job, it is pricing the job that is there. It is also fair to ask what happens if more rot is found once the base boards are off: a rate per metre agreed in advance is the answer you want, not a shrug.
What a sale changes
Where a building report has flagged the stumps and settlement is waiting, buyers and sellers want a figure quickly. A written quote after a subfloor inspection is the figure to negotiate on, and the buying guide explains how that tends to go when more than a quarter of the Shire's houses are holiday houses and the seller may not have been under the floor for years.
What a cost guide cannot tell you
It cannot give a price for your house, because the number that matters most, the state of the bearers, is behind the base boards. It cannot tell you the surveyor's fee, which each surveyor sets. It cannot say whether the dearer quote is the better one; only the seven lines above can. It cannot confirm the Shire's fees beyond the 2025-26 schedule, so ask the Shire for the current figure. And it cannot tell you what the ground will do next: on clay, a cheap relevel this year and another in three years is dearer than deeper stumps once, and on sand a stump set on nothing is a stump set twice.
Check the current rules before you rely on this
This page describes what moves the price of restumping on the Mornington Peninsula and the fees, contract and insurance thresholds that apply. It describes the rules in general terms as they stood in October 2026. Standards, forms, thresholds and fines change.
The authoritative sources are Consumer Affairs Victoria, preparing a major domestic building contract, Consumer Affairs Victoria domestic building consumer guide, Building and Plumbing Commission on domestic building insurance and Home Warranty cover, Building and Plumbing Commission (as the VBA) on registration being required for restumping and reblocking at any value, Mornington Peninsula Shire, Office of the Municipal Building Surveyor fees and charges 2025-26, Mornington Peninsula Shire, asset and amenity protection permit and Airtasker guide to house restumping. Where anything here differs from those sources, they are right and we are not.
We are not building surveyors, engineers, planners or lawyers. For what applies to your house, ask a registered building surveyor or ring Mornington Peninsula Shire on 1300 850 600.
Accurate at the time of writing, October 2026. Always check the source before relying on it.