Building Services Fees & Charges

All fees and charges include GST unless otherwise stated

Building consents

Council sets its building consent fees as actual and reasonable costs for the service. These are set by Council pursuant to s219 of the Building Act 2004 and s150 of the Local Government Act 2002.

There are three types of fees, two of which relate to the types of building projects being undertaken;

  • Fixed fees – these are for simple projects where the costs can be easily identified before the application is made.
  • Estimated fees – these are based on anticipated costs for that particular building project. The final charge is dependent on the actual hours of staff time involved in processing the application.
  • Territorial Authority fees – for services included inTerritorial Authority functions.

Fixed fees

The fees for these types of consents are fixed. Additional travel time may be charged for rural consents. Fixed fees are paid at the time of issue of the building consent application. These fees include a charge from our software provider for processing every consent (currently $85).

Project

Base fee

Stormwater separation (plus stormwater connection if applicable)

$405

Valve vented cylinders (hot water)

$365

Inbuilt solid fuel heaters (2 inspections)

$510

Free standing solid fuel heaters

$415

Demolition/Removal

$405

Swimming pools—plastic, ‘para’, blow-up, fiberglass, in ground (other pools that require construction work e.g. concrete, concrete block etc.—refer to 2A minimum)

$405

Spa pools

$365

Temporary marquee

$365

Schedule 1 Part 1 Clause 2 exemption 

$215 (minor)

$335 (complex)

Estimated building consent fees

Building consent applications do not require a deposit and are charged fully when a building consent is granted. Fees are charged on actual and reasonable timeframes incurred by the Building Consent Authority (BCA) in receiving, processing, issuing, inspecting, certifying and managing the building consent process. This fee is currently made up of three parts:

  • Administration fee – this part of the fee covers administration costs in receiving and vetting an application, data entry of application details, and scanning/digital storage charges. It also covers the cost of processing each building consent, building consent amendment and Project Information Memorandum (PIM) through our software provider’s system (currently $85).
  • Processing fee – this part of the fee covers officer time in compliance assessments of plans/specifications, data entry into electronic storage portals, correspondence with applicants (requests for further information [RFI] etc.), building consent granting (including notification to other parties where required i.e. Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment [MBIE] and the Registrar General of Land (LINZ) and costs incurred in generating payment invoices.
  • Consent issue fee – this part of the fee covers estimated inspection requirements including the number of inspections and also the time allocated for each inspection depending on the projects complexity  (failed inspections will incur extra costs for re-inspection and will be on-charged before the issue of the CCC). This fee also includes the officer time spent on compiling any associated levies applicable to the project, i.e. BRANZ, MBIE and WDC Accreditation levy.

The estimated administration fee and processing fee are payable at the conclusion of the application assessment process. At consent issue time the applicant will be required to pay the full balance of the costs that are deemed actual and reasonable by Council.

Additional charges may be made in respect to a consent that incurs further costs such as extra inspections.

Council officer hourly rates

Council officer

Hourly rate

Building Manager

$220

Team Leader

$200

Building Control Officer

$185

Administration Services (Technical)

$140

Technical/Professional council officers

$180

Inspection (hr)

$180

Auxiliary costs

Project

Description

Base fee

Administration charges

  • Residential
  • Commercial

$225

(now includes software licence fee of $85)

CCC issue

  • Residential
  • Commercial
  • $70
  • $150

Scanning/digital storage

Included in building consent fees administration

$35

Accreditation levy

Payable for all non-fixed fee projects

  • Residential
  • Commercial

 

  • $1.20 per $1,000 (max. $500)
  • $1.20 per $1,000 (max. $750)

 

MBIE levy

Building work valued over $20,444 incl. GST

$1.52 per $1,000

BRANZ levy

Building work valued over $20,000 incl. GST

$1.00 per $1,000

Non-fixed fee building consents

Non-fixed fee building consents are charged at cost based on officer time involved and the hourly rates provided above, plus the auxiliary costs also listed above.

The average fees charged for 2022/23 are provided as a guide.

Non-fixed fee building consents

Territorial authority fees

Description

Base fee

Certificate of Acceptance

$350 + staff time

Certificate for Public Use

$350 + staff time

Notice to Fix fee

$120

Building Act Infringement fee

$120

Extension of time BC/CCC

$80

Safe & sanitary – third party report

$325

Building Act Notifications (LINZ)

$176 (LINZ charge) + staff time

Pool barrier inspection/re-inspection

$80

Extension of time (seismic work- general)

$235

Extension of time (seismic work –heritage)

$235

Exemption to undertake seismic work

$235

Earthquake-prone buildings issue of notice

$0

Compliance

Description

Base fee

New Compliance Schedule

$160 + $20 per feature

Alteration to Compliance Schedule

$160

BWoF site audit/re-inspection

$215

BWoF complete and on time

$160

BWoF incomplete and/or late

$180

Infrastructure bonds

Application for all building and/or resource consents in relation to demolition, removal and relocation of buildings and the construction of new buildings within the city’s Urban Zone.

Description

Base fee

Non-refundable administration and inspection fee

$200

Refundable infrastructure bond

$1,500

Development contributions

Council has a development contributions policy for Springvale Urban Expansion Area and Otamatea West. In areas not covered by the development contributions policy we will use a range of tools such as infrastructure access fees, targeted rates and private developer agreements to reflect the true cost of providing network infrastructure for growth in the district. A copy of our Development Contributions Policy can be found here.