Note from the Victorian Building Authority
“When building a house, particularly a two storey house, it is important to take into consideration the location of the habitable rooms of the adjoining houses.
The Building Regulations 2006 (Regulation 419) provides the minimum requirements that need to be met to restrict the direct line of sight from the window of a habitable room into a habitable room of an adjoining house. A habitable room may be a bedroom, living room, kitchen, dining room, study or playroom.
The direct line of sight from a habitable room is measured from a point 1.7m above the floor for a horizontal distance of 9m from the window.
Offsetting windows
The windows should ideally be offset from the neighbour’s window by 1.5m.
If the windows cannot be offset by 1.5m, other solutions can be adopted to achieve compliance with the regulations. These include using fixed screening, installing obscure glass, wing walls or window ledges.
For more information about the requirements relating to overlooking, refer to Practice Note 47 – Part 4 of the Building Regulations 2006.”
Source : VBA