frequently asked questions.

The requirement for resource consents stems from the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). The RMA requires territorial authorities (District/City Councils), and regional authorities (Regional Councils) to prepare District and Regional Plans.

Generally speaking, a District Plan will deal with the ‘built’ environment. Whereas a regional plan deals with the ‘natural’ environment.

These plans must contain Objectives, Policies, Rules and Performance Standards (amongst other things). District and Regional Plans basically set out the ‘rules’ for how you can use your land and the natural resources on your land.

So the requirement for a resource consent will stem from either a District or Regional Plan. This is usually when a rule or performance standard states that a particular ‘activity’ requires a resource consent, certain performance standards are ‘infringed’ by your proposed project, or a plan is silent on your proposed activity (although this is not always the case).

If in doubt as to whether you require a resource consent for your next project, our team would be happy to discuss your proposal and provide preliminary advice.

This is a loaded question, and can depend on many different factors.

Although a Council has a statutory timeframe of 20 working days to process a consent, each different type of consent (i..e land use, subdivision, water take, etc) has specific requirements and information which needs to be compiled before preparing and submitting the consent. Usually this information will need to be provided by consultants that are external to Tomlinson Consultants. This preliminary work can usually take far longer than the actual processing of the consent.

A Council can also choose to issue a ‘further information request’ which stops the processing clock and can significantly extend the processing time of a consent. This is usually done when further clarification is requried, or insuficcient intformation is provided with the consent application.

In terms of common information required with an application, a typical land use consent for earthworks (assuming it does not require neighbors consent, will require a topographical survey, a site plan, cross-sections and elevations (to show heights of the proposed cut and fill),

A subdivision consent on the other hand, will require a scheme plan (to show the proposed allotments), a copy of the property title and any interests, review of the property file held by Council, a geotechnical assessment report, and may require a ‘three waters’ report. If the site is located within a particular zone overlay, is susceptible to natural hazards, or does not comply with the performance standards set out in the relevant District Plan, there may also be other supplementary reports that your Council requires to be submitted along with the consent.

As a minimum, and all things going well, we would advise our clients that a land use consent will take a minimum of 2 months to be obtained. For a subdivision, this timeline would extend out to a minimum of 4 months.

Although this is the case, we would advise speaking with one of our planners to discuss your project and individual requirements with us for a better estimate of timeframe.

People sometimes interchangeably (and mistakenly) use the two terms.

A Building Consent is required to construct anything that is defined as a ‘building’ by the Building Act 2004 (e.g. a house, a shed over 30m² in size, a large retaining wall).

A Resource Consent is required when a District Plan or Regional Plan states that an ‘activity’ on your land requires consent.

There are scenarios whereby both a Building Consent and Resource Consent can be required, such as if you are constructing a building within a yard setback (too close to your neighbour’s boundary), you are building a second house on a property which is not a ‘Permitted Activity’ in your zone, or if you are building your house higher than is permitted. There are numerous other examples, however these are some of the common ones.

If you are uncertain as to what type of consent you require, the team at Tomlinson Consultants can provide preliminary advice to help. Feel free to get in touch to discuss your project with us today.

The cost of a resource consent is variable, and depends on the type of consent and the specific ‘activity’ you need consent for. Each Council also has its own fees and charges for lodgment of the consent, which can usually be checked on the Council website with a quick Google search of ‘X District/City Council Resource Consent Fees and Charges 20XX’.

Costs that typically will need to be accounted for are:

• Planners Fees

• Council Lodgment Fee (deposit)

• Council Lodgment Fee (processing)

• Any specialist reports that are required (i.e. geotechnical assessment report, surveyor, scheme plan, stormwater design, etc)

It is important to note, that a Council will charge two sets of fees for a Resource Consent, with the first being the deposit and the second being the processing fees. Most but not all) Councils will provide an estimate of the processing fees likely to be incurred, shortly after the consent is lodged.

When undertaking your project with Tomlinson Consultants, we will provide a detailed fee proposal which contains an estimate of the likely fees and charges that will be incurred for the entirety of your consent. We tend to err on the conservative side when providing an estimate, but we can’t always guarantee the exact figure external consultants will charge.

Congratulations! The hard part is over - but now what?

You will have been provided with a document containing all of your conditions of consent. These are the things that Council requires you to do in order to comply with your consent.

There is no ‘template’ for conditions, and each consent is different in terms of the things that Council will require you to do.

Specifically with regard to subdivision you will need to carry out all of the conditions before you can obtain your new titles.

There are two options when you are looking to comply with your conditions of consent, either you can choose to do this yourself, or you can have one of our property consultants assist you with this. Feel free to have a discussion with us to work out what is the best option for your project.

There is no straightforward answer to this question, as every subdivision scenario is different.

This depends on the zoning, whether the subdivision will infringe rules in the District Plan, whether the site is susceptible to natural hazards, the conditions of consent imposed by your Council, how busy your Council is with other consents etc.

Although this is the case, for a straightforward subdivision (say 1 to 2 lots), that meets all of the requirements of the District Plan, with a Council that is working to normal timeframes (20 working days to process a consent), we would usually estimate that from end to end, the subdivision process will take 6 months. However, for subdivisions that are a little more complex, we would usually advise 12-18 months.

It is important to remember that the timeframes above are only guidelines, and there are many different factors that can come into play such as the requirement for neighbours’ consent, contaminated soils, the requirement for other resource consents (i.e. land use or Regional Council consents) and funding constraints required to carry out the conditions of consent.

For advice tailormade to your particular project, get in touch with one of our planning consultants who will be able to walk you through the process.

This can vary based on the specifics of your resource consent, but typically the timeframe for satisfaction of consent conditions is 5 years, with the ability to request a further two years if required. This would be typical for something such as a land use consent or a subdivision consent.

However, once you action the conditions, the resulting activity (i.e. construction of a house with a yard infringement, or subdivision) can either continue for the lifetime of that ‘activity’ or in perpetuity.

Some activities such as a water take consent can be approved for significantly longer time periods (i.e. for up to 30 years). However, there generally must be quite a compelling reason for this.

If you would like to discuss your consent application with us, feel free to get in touch.