Obscure glazing is required in Victoria wherever a window or raised outdoor area creates a direct line of sight into a neighbour's habitable room window or secluded private open space within 9 metres. The line is measured from 1.7 metres above your floor level, inside a 45 degree arc from the window. If your design fails that test, you must screen it, and fixed obscure glazing is one of the accepted ways to do it.

That is the rule in a sentence. If a planning objection, a permit condition or a neighbour's complaint has landed on your desk, the detail is where most people get stuck, so let's walk through it properly.

Where the obscure glazing rules come from

There are two separate pathways in Victoria, and which one applies to you depends on whether your project needs a planning permit.

If a planning permit is required, overlooking is assessed under ResCode, which sits at Clauses 54 and 55 of every Victorian planning scheme. Clause 54 (Standard A15) covers one dwelling on a lot. Clause 55 (Standard B22) covers two or more dwellings and residential buildings. These are the standards your town planner and the council will be quoting.

If no planning permit is required, the siting requirements in Part 4 of the Building Regulations 2018 take over. Regulation 84 deals with overlooking and produces a consistent outcome, which is why the numbers look almost identical either way.

Two doors into the same room, essentially. Most homeowners meet the rules through their building surveyor. Most townhouse and unit developers meet them through the planning permit.

The three numbers that decide everything

Every overlooking assessment in Victoria comes down to the same geometry.

•     1.7 metres. The height above finished floor level from which the line of sight is measured. This represents roughly standing eye height. It is also the height to which screening must extend.

•     9 metres. The horizontal distance, measured at ground level, within which the test applies. Beyond 9 metres, overlooking is generally not assessed.

•     45 degrees. The arc measured from each side of the plane of the window, balcony, terrace, deck or patio. Views outside that cone are not counted.

What matters is that all three conditions have to be met at once for there to be a problem. A window 11 metres from the boundary is usually fine. A window facing hard along a boundary at a sharp angle may fall outside the 45 degree cone even at close range. This is why a decent set of drawings often solves the issue before any glazing is specified.

It is also worth knowing that the standard limits overlooking, it does not attempt to eliminate it. VCAT has been clear on this point over the years, and it matters when a neighbour insists that every window must be blocked. The planning scheme only protects secluded private open space and habitable room windows within that 9 metre radius.

What counts as compliant screening

Where a window or balcony does fail the test, ResCode and the Building Regulations give you a defined set of options. You can:

•     Raise the sill so that the window has a sill height of at least 1.7 metres above floor level.

•     Fit fixed, obscure glazing to any part of the window below 1.7 metres above floor level.

•     Install permanently fixed external screens to at least 1.7 metres above floor level, with no more than 25 per cent transparency.

•     Relocate or reorient the window, balcony or terrace so the line of sight no longer arises.

•     Fit permanently fixed internal screens to at least 1.7 metres above floor level, again with limited transparency.

For balconies and terraces, the screening is measured from the floor of the balcony rather than the internal floor level.

The word that trips people up is "fixed". A blind is not fixed. A curtain is not fixed. An openable window with obscure glazing in the sash may not satisfy a surveyor if the obscured panel can simply be swung open to restore the view. Whatever solution you choose has to be permanent and it has to be there on the day of inspection and afterwards.

Does window film satisfy an obscure glazing condition?

In most cases, yes, and it is the reason a lot of Melbourne builders call us at the end of a job rather than the beginning.

A permanently applied frosted or patterned privacy film on the internal face of the glass creates fixed obscure glazing. It is not removable in normal use, it does not rely on an occupant closing anything, and it obscures the view in both directions. Applied to the correct height, it does exactly what the standard asks for.

There are three things to get right.

Get the height right. The film has to run to 1.7 metres above the finished floor level of the room, not 1.7 metres from the bottom of the window. On a standard 2.1 metre high window in a room with a low sill, that usually means film across most of the pane with a clear strip at the top. On a high sill, it may be a much smaller band. Measure from the floor every time.

Get the opacity right. A light dusted film that still allows recognisable shapes through is not obscure glazing. We use films rated at 95 per cent opacity for compliance work, which reads as genuinely obscured rather than merely decorative. If you want a decorative pattern instead of plain frost, choose one with continuous coverage rather than a widely spaced motif.

Confirm it before you commit. Your building surveyor or the responsible authority is the one who signs off, not your film installer. We can tell you what we believe complies based on more than twenty years of doing this work, and we will give you an honest view, but a formal determination has to come from the surveyor. Send them the film specification and get it in writing. It takes a day and saves arguments later.

What changed recently, and what did not

Victoria's residential planning framework has moved quite a bit lately. Amendment VC267 introduced the Townhouse and Low-Rise Code from 31 March 2025, which brought a deemed to comply pathway and a notable exemption for bedroom windows. Clause 57 now extends to residential buildings of four to six storeys following Amendment VC300 in April 2026, and its external amenity provisions at Clause 57.04 pick up privacy and overlooking.

Broader reforms under the Planning Amendment (Better Decisions Made Faster) Act 2026 are being staged through to 2027 and affect how applications are assessed and whether third parties can appeal.

Here is the practical takeaway. The assessment process has changed. The underlying geometry has not. The 9 metre, 45 degree and 1.7 metre tests are still how overlooking gets measured, and fixed obscure glazing is still an accepted response. If anything, tighter appeal pathways make getting compliance right the first time more commercially important, not less.

When film is the better answer than replacing the glass

Obscure glazing can be achieved by ordering translucent or textured glass from the outset. If you are still at frame order stage, that is a perfectly good route.

Film wins in three situations.

The glass is already in. Replacing installed glazing means removing beads, handling large panes, re-glazing and often scaffolding. Film goes on in place, usually in a few hours, with no dust and no trades queue.

The permit condition arrived late. It happens more than you would think. A condition surfaces at final inspection or a neighbour raises it during the objection period. Film can be installed and inspected within days rather than the weeks a glass order takes.

You want the option back. If the overlooking condition relates to a neighbouring building that may be redeveloped, film can be removed and replaced later without touching the glazing itself.

Frequently asked questions

Does obscure glazing have to be on every window?

No. Only windows that create a direct line of sight into a neighbour's habitable room window or secluded private open space within 9 metres, measured within the 45 degree arc from 1.7 metres above floor level.

Can I use blinds or curtains instead?

No. The screening must be permanently fixed. Blinds, curtains and internal shutters can be opened, so they do not satisfy the standard.

How high does the film need to go?

To 1.7 metres above the finished floor level of the room. For balconies and terraces, it is measured from the balcony floor.

Is bathroom or toilet glazing covered?

Bathrooms, toilets and laundries are generally not habitable rooms for the purposes of the overlooking standard, though obscure glazing is usually wanted there anyway for ordinary privacy reasons.

Will a building surveyor accept window film?

In our experience, yes, where the film is permanently applied, sufficiently opaque and installed to the correct height. Confirm your specific specification with your surveyor in writing before installation.

Getting it sorted

We have been applying privacy and obscure glazing films across Melbourne since 2002, and a good share of that work is compliance driven: permit conditions, surveyor call-ups, neighbour disputes and end of build sign-offs. We know what surveyors look for and we can usually turn a job around quickly when a deadline is involved.

Send us the window schedule or a few photos with floor to sill measurements and we will tell you what height of film each opening needs. Request a free quote (/pages/request-a-quote) or call 1300 204 852.

This article is general information about how Victorian overlooking provisions work. It is not planning or building advice for your specific property. Your building surveyor or the responsible authority determines compliance.