A family that moved out of their Yarralumla home that was partially demolished to make way for a new home next door has become a tipping point for community councils and left a question mark over planning laws aimed at efficient assessments.

The Canberra Times reported on the extraordinary demolition earlier this month.

A family of nine moved out of the two-storey duplex in Fraser Place when the neighbouring half was flattened to make way for a new home.

Professional, industry and community groups are reviewing laws that exempt some new developments from planning assessment.

Engineers Australia Canberra division president Andrew Montgomery, an engineer and building surveyor who issues approvals, said current exemptions helped people build simple structures without going through several stages of approvals and designs.

He said the laws were complex and had been under review for two years.

The Yarralumla duplex's partial demolition underlined the need for a review.

''Every now and then you get the situation where things go wrong, as I

believe went wrong in Yarralumla,'' Mr Montgomery said.

''Sometimes when you translate facts onto paper and those papers are translated into buildings, things slip between cracks. We are trying to tighten up those areas.''

The ACT opposition has raised the issue in the Legislative Assembly, saying this case caused unbearable hardship to neighbouring property owners.

Planning Minister Simon Corbell has taken a question on notice about whether a common wall in a duplex could be exempt from a development application.

Meanwhile, Yarralumla residents have expressed dismay at another new two-storey home under construction that overshadows a three-bedroom home and is being built substantially of corrugated iron.

The Environment and Sustainable Development Department rejected the neighbour's complaints that it blotted out their winter sunlight, saying it complied with regulations.

The Inner South Community Council said cases such as this were happening too often and wants precinct codes, enforceable by law, to protect suburbs from inappropriate developments.

ISCC chairman Gary Kent said the level of complaints would be raised in a submission to the Assembly for the debate on a contentious draft variation to the Territory Plan.