About building consents

There are some situations where a building consent is not required for building work. This includes low decks, pergolas, fences under 2.5m high, some signs and some retaining walls and some minor plumbing and drainage. For information on when you don’t need a building consent, check out Guidance: Building work that does not require a building consent.

Although a building consent is not required, the work must still comply with the Building Code. Even though building consent is not required you may need other Council approvals such as a resource consent or bylaw approvals. You can apply for an exemption of a building consent under Schedule 1, exemption (2). To apply, use the notification of exemption from building consent form.

If you’re not sure whether you need a building consent for your project, you should discuss this with a building or design professional.

In some cases, the council can allow building work to be undertaken without consent even though that work is not exempt from consent requirements. You will need to submit an application for exemption and provide reasons as to why you intend to seek an exemption, for example if the work is considered to be low-risk and is unlikely to cause a danger to anyone.

Building design and building work can be complex. In many cases having design and building professionals doing the work for you can take away a lot of stress that can arise during a building project. If your building or renovation project relates to work on a residential building it's likely to include some restricted building work. Restricted building work is design and/or building work that must be performed or supervised by a licensed building practitioner.

Restricted building work is design or construction work that is structural, or affects the weather tightness of the building. It covers elements such as:

• foundations
• floors
• walls
• framing
• roofing
• cladding
• external moisture-management systems
• active fire safety systems (in small to medium-sized apartments)

The Building Act places an obligation on the building owner to ensure (before you start the work) that the people you’re using to supervise or do restricted building work have the relevant licenses.

You must use an LBP to design or carry out restricted building work. An LBP must do or supervise this work. They must work within the scope of their licence class. Licensed Building Practitioners (LBPs) are licensed by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment. They include:

• designers
• carpenters
• bricklayers and blocklayers
• roofers
• external plasterers
• site and foundations specialists.

Each LBP, designer or engineer needs to supply a Memorandum (Certificate of Design Work) (Form 2A) to include in your building consent application. This memorandum identifies the restricted building work that they have either designed or supervised.

During construction, restricted building work must be carried out or supervised by a LBP. The LBPs doing the work should be named in the building consent application, if you know who they will be. If you don’t yet know which LBP you are using, you must tell us before work starts.

What you need to know about restricted building work:

• The owner must notify the council who the LBPs performing the work are; notification must be provided before the RBW begins
• We cannot do any inspections until we have been notified which LBPs have been engaged
• An LBP must issue a Record of Work (ROW) when they complete their work.
• All LBPs who work on your project are required to issue a ROW, not just the main contractor.
• The LBPs must supply the ROWs to both the homeowner and the council.
• Far North District Council will apply a build inspection block until LBP details are provided.

When you can do restricted building work yourself

This exemption provides owner-builders or do-it-yourself builders (DIY) a mechanism to undertake restricted building work on their own homes, or use a friend or family member to either assist, or undertake the works on their behalf.

You are an owner-builder if you:

• Have a relevant interest in the land or the building on which the restricted building work is carried out (i.e. ownership)
• Live in or are going to live in the home (includes a bach or holiday home)
• Carry out restricted building work to your own home yourself, or with the help of your unpaid friends and family members, and
• Have not, under the owner-builder exemption, carried out restricted building work to any other home within the previous three years.

You must either own (or jointly own with another person) or have a beneficial legal interest in the land and/or house the building work is being carried out on. A legal interest includes being a beneficiary of a trust, shareholder of a company, co-owner of Maori land, or having possession of a long-term lease.

To meet the criteria, you must also genuinely intend to occupy (or already occupy) the house and not be building (or altering) it only to sell it or rent it to someone else.  However, occupation does not need be permanent or exclusive, it is sufficient for you to reside on an intermittent basis e.g. a holiday home.

An owner-builder exemption does not cover works such as electrical, gas-fitting or plumbing and drainage work unless the owner-builder holds appropriate licenses for this type of work.

If an owner builder claims an exemption under the LBP scheme, you must complete a statutory declaration on Form 2B.  The statutory declaration must be held on the Land Information Register so that future owners are made aware that the design or construction of the dwelling has been undertaken by an owner builder.

There has been an increase in relocatable, tiny homes in the Far North and there may be some misconceptions that these do not need building consents.

Responsible manufacturers are applying for building consents or exemptions for their relocatable homes prior to sale which is the correct procedure.

Other businesses appear to be misleading purchasers about consents required for tiny homes, claiming no consent is needed or it can be applied for after the building is onsite. This is incorrect.

Please ensure you check the rules with the Far North District Council before purchasing your building to avoid extra expenses.

Here’s a guide to what you need to know under the Building Act 2004

• Any building, regardless of size, that contains sanitary fittings (sink, toilet, shower etc) requires a building consent.
• The Schedule 1 exemption under the Building Act only applies to buildings under 30 square metres that have no sanitary fittings and are their own height away from the boundary.
• If a relocatable building is being used as a sleepout, with no sanitary fittings, it can only be used in conjunction with a legally established main dwelling.
• If the building is on a trailer or skids it is still considered a building under the Building Act and needs a building consent unless it can be legally towed on the public road and not connected to any sort of services, except a caravan-style power plug.
• Buildings cannot be placed on the ground but must be attached to a foundation system.
• A Certificate of Acceptance (COA) from the council after a home is placed onsite is not advisable as the process to complete a COA is lengthy and includes submitting evidence and reports to show it meets the current New Zealand Building Code. The cost of this process falls entirely on the purchaser, not the manufacturer. FNDC also cannot guarantee that a COA will be issued.
• Before purchasing a relocatable home, request the Exemption Number and Certificate or Code Compliance Certificate from the manufacturer for the building and confirm this with the council. That way the purchaser will only need a wastewater and foundation consent for the building to be place onsite.

If you require any more information or have questions or queries, please contact the council’s building compliance team through the RFS system for free advice.

A national multiple-use approval (known as a MultiProof) is a statement by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) that a set of plans and specifications for a building complies with the New Zealand Building Code.

Under the Building Act 2004, BCAs must accept a current MultiProof as evidence of Building Code compliance if every relevant condition in that MultiProof is met. MultiProofs allow builders who replicate the same or substantially similar buildings several times to benefit from a streamlined building consent process.

A MultiProof is not, and does not replace, a building consent. The holder of a MultiProof must obtain a building consent each time they wish to build the approved design. This enables the BCA to confirm and establish:

• the design, with any permitted variations, is the same as the one in the plans and specifications approved as part of the MultiProof
• the proposed site meets the conditions of the MultiProof conditions
• any site specific features of the design comply with the Building Code
• the inspections required

However, because the BCA only needs to assess the Building Code compliance of site-specific features excluded from the MultiProof, the statutory timeframe for the BCA to grant or refuse a building consent for applications that rely on a MultiProof is 10 working days instead of the usual 20.

Details of issued MultiProofs are posted on a register owned by MBIE. This is to enable the BCA to compare the plans submitted by the building consent applicant to those approved by MBIE. For more information see MultiProof | Building Performance.

Permitted Variations

Permitted variations are design alternatives for a MultiProof. The permitted variations will be listed on the MultiProof, and a building consent authority can assess the plans and specifications included in the building consent application with the approved plans and specifications MBIE has on file.

Minor Customisations

A 'minor customisation' is a change to the building design of a MultiProof approval at the time a building consent is applied for. A minor customisation could be putting a window where a door was planned in the initial design or mirroring the layout of a room to maximise sunlight or to work with a specific landscape. If a MultiProof holder would like to make a minor change to their MultiProof, they may do so at the building consent application stage.

From 2 November 2024, all building consent applications for housing will need to specify interconnected smoke alarms.

The Building Code for Protection from Fire has been amended to make interconnected smoke alarms the minimum fire safety system for new built homes and substantial renovations. NZS 4514:2021 sets out the requirements for interconnected smoke alarms.

Interconnected smoke alarms can either be wireless or hard-wired, and are interconnected so that when one activates, all alarms sound.

Interconnected smoke alarms are now required to be installed in all bedrooms, sleeping areas, living spaces, hallways and landings within a household unit. Multi-level dwellings will need at least one smoke alarm on each level.

You can access NZS 4514:2021 for free at www.standards.govt.nz/shop/nzs-45142021/