Processing and issuing your building consent application

On receiving your application, we will undertake vetting of your application. We will complete this review within 2 working days of receiving the application. This review is not a technical check and is done to ensure that all information required under section 45 of the Building Act 2004 has been provided and is complete. If all information is there, the application is entered into our system, given a consent number and the 20-working day processing clock will also start. The application will be allocated to various disciplines within the building consent authority for processing against the relevant regulations, i.e. planning, engineering, building, water, drainage, services etc. The Building Consent Authority (BCA) will also at this point apply for any required PIM’s if not provided with the application.

If the application has not met the threshold of section 45, it will be deemed incomplete and you will be contacted with details on the missing information. It is not added to our system and the processing clock does not start until the application is complete.

On acceptance of your application, you will receive notification that your application has been accepted. Your application will be allocated to one of our review teams for them to undertake a building code compliance review. Our review teams are made up of Chartered Professional Engineers that are deemed competent under the Building (Accreditation of Building Consent Authorities) Regulations 2006 to carry out a compliance review. A compliance review is a compliance check that is performed on behalf of the BCA by a CPEng engineer with an equivalent level of expertise in the dam design and construction field. It reviews your application against regulations, consent requirements and laws or guidelines to determine compliance.

During processing your application, it will also be checked for the following:

• Development contribution requirements
• Referrals to Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ)
• Heritage New Zealand
• Professional opinions
• Warnings and bans.

Where any questions or concerns are raised, you will be notified of a request for further information, which will stop the 20-working day clock and processing of your application will be suspended until all information requested has been received.

Once the reviewer is satisfied on reasonable grounds that the application complies with the NZ Building Code, they will recommend that the application be either refused or granted. The BCA will then take this recommendation and make the decision to either refuse or grant the application. You will be notified of the outcome and in the event of a refusal, the reasons the application has been refused.

The difference between vetting and consent processing is that vetting is a non-technical review that ensures that all required information is provided and that documentation provided is complete i.e. application form has all sections complete, the producer statements have the correct council and are signed and dated.

Consent processing reviews the plans, specifications and documentation against the following:

• Building Act 2004
• New Zealand Building Code
• Relevant New Zealand Standards
• The selected compliance pathways
• Selected alternative solution designs.

Information within your application needs to be clear on how you meet all relevant legislation to avoid requests for further information or refusal to issue your consent.

The time in which a building consent takes to be processed is dependent on the complexity of your project and if the application has sufficient information to show compliance. On average, we process applications within an 18-day time frame. The applications must be processed within the statutory timeframes specified in the Building Act 2004 and the clock starts on receipt of a complete application. The following are the statutory working day timeframes set within the Building Act:

• National multi-proof applications: 10 working days
• An application that includes modular components: 10 working days
• All other applications (including PIM’s and amendments): 20 working days.

The application clock can be stopped when a formal request for information is made. The clock will remain suspended until all further information requested is received.

Once the processing is complete, the clock will stop at the decision to either grant or refuse the building consent application. At this point the application is considered to have the processing complete.

It is of note that the statutory clock does not start until the next working day after the receipt of information (whether that is the application or request for further information (RFI)).

The statutory clock also pauses every year between 20 December and 10 January. This applies to all Building Act applications and means that in this time period the days are not counted as working days. During this period we still continue to receive applications and continue to work on and issue applications where possible.  

A request for further information (RFI) is when the reviewing officer has questions or concerns with the information within your application. Where we are unable to be satisfied on reasonable grounds that the application we have been provided complies with the relevant legislation, we will raise an RFI to enable you to provide additional information or clarification.

When responding to your RFI, please consider the following to help in processing your application efficiently:

• Provide ALL your responses to an RFI in one response
• Clearly identify and reference chances on documents e.g. revision clouds and document version numbering
• Provide a cover page or document transmittal detailing the changes made.

Your RFI response may be deemed as incomplete if you have not considered the above in your response.

The clock is suspended on the issue of a RFI, which puts the 20-working day clock on hold. All information should be supplied as soon as possible to avoid your application being refused and where you require additional time to respond to the RFI, please let us know the time in which you are planning to have the information provided. This helps in ensuring we do not refuse your application.

The 20-working day clock will not restart until sufficient information has been received.

There can also be further RFI’s made if the information provided still does not satisfy the BCA on reasonable grounds.

Council will notify you via your preferred method of communication for any consent progress including application acceptance or reject, RFI required, consent issued or refused and invoicing.

Where applications are rejected or refused, you will receive a letter documenting the reasons for the rejection or refusal.

If at any point during the process you wish to be updated, please contact us buildingconsents@waikatoregion.govt.nz

In some instances, your application may be refused. If this is the case, you will be provided written reason on why you application was refused.  

Application refusal can be for any number of reasons, including (but not limited to):

• Significant non-compliance with the relevant sections of the building code
• A banned product or method is proposed within the application
• Response to requests for further information are not provided within a reasonable timeframe
• No communication from the applicant
• Starting building work before your consent is issued.

If your consent has been refused, you will still need to pay any outstanding consent fees for the time and costs incurred in processing your application to the point it was refused.

The granting of the building consent happens when the BCA is satisfied on ‘reasonable grounds’ that the provisions of the Building Code will be met if the building work is completed in accordance with plans and specifications accompanying the building consent application.

However, the building consent does not have to be granted until any applicable fees and levies associated with the application have been paid.

Your building consent will be issued upon payment of applicable fees, levies and charges. Your approved building consent application will include (when relevant):

• Form 5 – Building Consent
• Advice notes
• Schedule of required inspections
• Conditions
• Stamped approved plans, specifications and building construction documentation
• The PIM, where applied for
• Any development contribution notice
• Notification of RMA requirements
• List of documents required during construction
• Construction monitoring to be carried out by third parties.

You will be notified that your application has been issued and provided a link to access your approved documentation and its attachments. The approved documentation should be provided to the construction teams as anything constructed that differs from the plans will be non-compliant and could cause hold ups on review.

When a building consent is issued there will be a number of conditions and advice notes attached to the approved building consent documentation. Only conditions permitted by the Building Act 2004 may be placed on the building consent (Form 5). These may be in relation to:

• Entitlement to inspect
• Specified intended life
• Waivers and modifications
• Building on land subject to natural hazards
• Building over two or more allotments.

Advice notes or notices attached to building consents are advice from council that certain requirements should met or may be helpful information in relation to building consent and building work. These are just advice that may be helpful information in relation to the consent and are not specific requirements to meet building consent compliance.

It is important that you read and understand all conditions of the consent before commencing work. If you do not understand any condition imposed, contact us to discuss them.

You can’t start building work until your consent has been issued.

A section 37 notice is issued by a regional or territorial authority when a resource consent is required. This can include where resource consents have been applied for but are yet to be issued. The section 37 notice will state that either:

• No building work can proceed until the resource consent has been issued, or
• Advise the extent of building works that can be carried out until the resource consent is obtained.

If your building consent has been issued with a section 37 notice, you cannot start works until your resource consent is issued.

Other authorisations maybe required to enable works to begin. This could include approval of road usage, electricity, water connections etc. As the owner, you are obligated to ensure all required approvals for your works are received prior to construction starting on site.

Once all relevant consents and authorisations are received, you can start construction on site.