Building Consent guidance and FAQ

From February 2019 all building consents must be completed online. If you’re having problems or don’t have internet access, give our team a call on 0800 WAIPADC (0800 924 723) and we’ll help you out.

Building consents lodged on paper before 18 February 2019 don’t need to be re-submitted online – they’ll be processed under the old system until code of compliance is issued for those projects.

Invoicing for residential projects is now done through our online system, helping speed up the process.

The time it takes to process a building consent depends on the complexity of your project and the information you’ve given us.

Council is required to process your building consent in no more than 20 working days – if we make a formal request for more information, the days won’t be counted until we receive the information.

This is a requirement of the Building Act and enables us to identify who owns the property and allotment details, including any easements or other legal instruments that might affect the proposed building work.

To obtain a Certificate of Title, visit the Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) website, contact your solicitor or see a land agent.

For developments where title is not yet available, you may submit a Sales and Purchase Agreement with your building consent application.

The estimated value of work provided on your application is used to calculate the levies due to the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE) and Building Research Association New Zealand (BRANZ).

All building work with an estimated value of work of $20,000 or more incurs a BRANZ levy.

All building work with an estimated value of work of $20,444 or more incurs a MBIE levy.

When you submit your building consent online you will be set up with your own unique customer portal where you can log on to track your consent progress.

Your portal allows you to view any further information requests issued and responses received, upload documents, apply for a Code Compliance Certificate (CCC) and much more.

If you submitted your building consent on paper or you don’t have access to a computer, give us a call on 0800 924 723 and one of our Customer Support staff will be happy to assist you.

If your building consent application is approved and all fees have been paid, the consent will be uploaded to your online customer portal and you’ll be notified by email.

All fees must be paid prior to your consent being issued.

If your building consent application is refused, our processing team will get in touch to go through the reasons for the decision.

If you submitted your consent in hard copy, we’ll call you to notify that it’s complete.

You can apply for CCC within the customer portal. Please make sure you upload all required documents with your application, as these will need to be approved prior to your final inspection taking place.

If you applied for building consent prior to 18 February 2019, your consent will have been issued under Council’s paper based system and is what we call a legacy consent. You will need to fill in a CCC application and submit your completed form and CCC documentation by post, email or deliver it to a Council office.

You can find the CCC application form on the Build Waikato - Application Forms and Checklists webpage.

No, your consent must be issued before the work can commence.

Your building consent is valid for a period of 12 months from the date of issue, work must have commenced within this time or the consent will lapse and a new application will be required.

The building work should be completed within two years from the date that the building consent is granted.

If for any reason your project is delayed, it may be possible to apply for an extension. Give us a call on 0800 WAIPADC (0800 924 723) and speak to our Building Compliance team to discuss further.

Restricted Building Work (RBW) is design and building work that must be carried out by a Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP) as it is critical to the integrity of a residential building.

In the context of RBW, design work is the preparation of drawings, specifications and/or other documents for the purposes of consent. Registered Architects and Chartered Professional Engineers are treated as LBPs licensed in the design class.

Licensed Building Practitioners are designers, builders, roofers, bricklayers, carpenters, external plasterers and foundations specialists who have been assessed as competent to carry out such work.

The approval and registration of LBPs is maintained by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).You can check if someone is registered on the Public Register.