Tom Vasilopoulos

Profile

Tom is a leading practitioner in town planning and building law. He provides advice to clients on complex building and planning issues. He also regularly appears before the Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), the Building Appeals Board, the Magistrates’ Court and the Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC), formerly the Victorian Building Authority (VBA), in a wide range of planning and building matters. 

Experience

Tom’s experience includes appearances in the following areas of practice:

VCAT - Planning & Environment List

• Merit appeals for councils, objectors, property owners and developers.
• Hearings relating to declarations, injunctions, enforcement and existing use rights.
• Hearings relating to the removal or variation of restrictive covenants or easements.
• Amendment or cancellation of permits or extension of time to permits.

Building Appeals Board

• Appeals and disputes involving 'protection of adjoining property’ matters. 
• Appeals involving Building Notices and/or Building Orders.
• Appeals involving Occupancy Permits and/or Building Permits.
• Appeals involving 'Report & Consent’ matters.
• Appeals involving the siting of dwellings, outbuildings and other structures.
• Modification of the building regulations.
• Hearings relating to the determination in respect of a building design.
• Applications dealing with combustible cladding to existing buildings.

Magistrates' Court

• Advise and appear in statutory criminal prosecutions relating to building and planning.

BPC - as Disciplinary Body

• Advise and appear in disciplinary matters and proceedings involving building practitioners.

Other Experience

Tom’s experience also includes a ministerial appointment by the Minister for Planning as the 'Legal Representative Member’ for the Building Advisory Council between 2012 to 2018.

Tom also instructs graduate lawyers in property law, advocacy and planning law at Leo Cussen Centre of Law. He is also a sessional lecturer at The University of Melbourne where he jointly presents 'Planning and Development Law' for the Melbourne Law Masters. Between 2014 to 2019, Tom presented a law subject to undergraduate students as part of the Environmental & Risk Engineering degree at Victoria University. 

Before coming to the Bar, Tom was an in-house counsel and a senior manager for an inner-city council in Metropolitan Melbourne which comprised of multiple roles including the manager of property services, legal services and planning enforcement and the statutory role of Municipal Building Surveyor. Prior to this unique role, Tom was employed as a Building Surveyor and Building Inspector in both the private and public sectors.

Academic Qualifications

Tom’s academic qualifications include the following:

• Master of Applied Science (Development Legislative Management); 
• Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice;
• Graduate Diploma in Building Surveying; 
• Bachelor of Laws; 
• Graduate Certificate in Performance Based Building and Fire Codes. 
• Technician Certificate (Building Inspector).

Other Professional Qualifications

Tom was registered as a building practitioner for 26 years with the VBA in the category of Building Surveyor Unlimited and Building Inspector Unlimited.

Tom’s unique qualifications and experience gives him the ability to read architectural and structural drawings with ease. He can also analyse specialist reports including fire engineering reports, traffic reports, DDA reports, planning reports, acoustic reports and ESD reports.