Every experienced builder in New Zealand has an opinion about building consents, and most of those opinions concern delay. The statutory framework is actually reasonably tight. The gap between the framework and lived experience is almost entirely explained by one mechanism, and understanding it changes how you prepare an application.
The twenty working day clock
A building consent authority must grant or refuse a building consent within 20 working days of receiving a complete application. That is the statutory position under the Building Act.
The critical words are “complete” and “working days”. Twenty working days is four calendar weeks before any holidays. And an application that is not complete does not start the clock at all.
Requests for further information stop the clock
When a processing officer needs more information, they issue a request for further information — universally called an RFI. The clock stops on the day the RFI is issued and does not restart until the response is received.
This is the whole story of consent delay. A project sitting at day 90 has almost never been sitting in a queue for 90 days. It has usually been through two or three RFI cycles, each one stopping the clock while the design team assembles a response, with the applicant experiencing the entire elapsed period as council delay.
The consequence is that the single largest determinant of your consent timeframe is the quality of the application you lodge, because it determines how many RFI cycles you go through.
What triggers RFIs
Processing officers must be satisfied on reasonable grounds that the work will comply with the Building Code. They cannot infer, assume, or take your word for it. The recurring triggers are predictable:
- Specifications that name a product without the supporting appraisal, producer statement or evidence of compliance pathway.
- Drawings that disagree with each other, or with the specification.
- Missing structural or geotechnical documentation where ground conditions warrant it.
- Weathertightness details left generic at junctions that actually need resolving.
- Alternative solutions proposed without the evidence required to support them.
- No documented producer statements where a design has been carried out by a chartered professional engineer.
None of these are unreasonable requests. They are the file the council must be able to defend later.
Exempt work, and its limits
Schedule 1 of the Building Act exempts certain work from requiring consent — some sleepouts within size limits, certain outbuildings, particular repairs and maintenance using comparable materials. The exemptions were broadened in recent years.
Two cautions. Exempt from consent does not mean exempt from the Building Code; the work must still comply. And exemptions have conditions attached that are easy to breach without noticing, particularly around size, proximity to boundaries and whether the work is structural. When in doubt, ask the council in writing before you build, not after.
Inspections and the code compliance certificate
Consent is permission to start, not confirmation you are finished. Inspections happen at nominated stages, and the code compliance certificate is issued once the authority is satisfied the completed work complies with the consent.
Applications for a CCC must be made within two years of consent being granted unless an extension is agreed. The number of New Zealand properties carrying open consents that were never closed out is substantial, and it becomes the owner’s problem at the point of sale, often years later and at considerable cost.
How to make it go faster
Lodge complete. Have your producer statements, product appraisals and structural documentation assembled before you apply rather than in response to an RFI. Pre-application meetings are available at most councils and are worth the time on anything complex. Respond to RFIs completely the first time, because a partial response simply generates another cycle.
MBIE publishes guidance on the consent system and building law at building.govt.nz, and territorial authorities publish their own requirements and current processing performance. Both are free and both are worth reading before your next application rather than during it.
