What's New
Updated Building Unit Fees and Charges
Effective from 1 July 2020
The fees and charges relating to building consent applications, inspections and other services provided by the Building Unit have been reviewed and amended. The changes were made available for public consultation in March/April 2020, and have now been approved by Council.
These changes were made to better reflect the actual cost to Council in providing this service, with those gaining the benefit from the regulatory service paying reasonable costs for that service.
In addition:
- higher costs are anticipated to maintain Council's Building Consent Authority accreditation
- many fees and charges are below the actual cost to Council because they do not reflect realistic time allowances
A summary of the proposed amendments is outlined below:
- Increase the hourly charge out rate for administrators from $100 per hour to $160 per hour
- Increase the hourly charge out rate for residential technical officers from $135 per hour to $160 per hour
- Change the fee for Project Information Memorandums from $150 to an hourly charge out rate of $160
- Include a computer system fee per consent based on the estimated value of the works:
- A $75 fee for works up to $10,000 in value
- $125 for works between $10,001 and $800,000 in value and
- $250 for works over $800,000 in value
- Include the earthquake prone building fees in the schedule (application for exemption, extension of time for a heritage building and assessment of information relating to a building’s status) with a $610 deposit
- Increase the quality assurance levy from $1 to $2.50 per $1,000 of the estimated value of the works (applies when the value of works is $20,000 and over and is capped at $10 million)
- Increase the insurance levy from $0.75 to $1.50 per $1,000 of the estimated value of the works (applies when the value of works is $20,000 and over and is capped at $10 million)
- Reduce the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) levy from $2.01 to $1.75 per $1,000 of the estimated value of the works (applies when the value of works is $20,444 and over)
- Change the fixed fee/deposit combinations to deposits and most of these will increase to reflect the actual time to complete the task
The new Building Unit fees and charges are effective from 1 July 2020. A copy of the new fees and charges can be found here (605KB PDF).
Proposed building consent exemptions
From August 2020 new types of building consent exemptions will be added to the Building Act.