Processing Your Consent

Once we have received your application, it will be vetted by our administration team. We aim to vet these within 48 hours. This initial check is to ensure sufficient information has been supplied for your application to be processed.

If your application is missing information, you will be contacted. Until the information has been supplied, your application is considered not accepted.  A more detailed check for accuracy of the information will be carried out by a Building Control Processing Officer.

Once we accept your application, it will be allocated an individual consent number. You will be notified of this in an email acknowledging receipt of your application. This number should be quoted whenever you write to or contact us about your Building Consent application. 

Your application will be processed by a Building Control Processing Officer who will assess the information provided against the requirements of relevant legislation, regulation and specific property requirements.

Your application may also be distributed to different departments within our Council to check for compliance with other relevant legislation.

If your project involves certain criteria Council may also send a copy of your documentation to specialist consultants for review or peer review, e.g. a structural engineer, a fire engineer or Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ). 

The Building Act requires the Council to process a Building Consent application in 20 working days. The 20 day statutory "clock” starts when the consent is accepted for processing by the Council. If the application is for a national multiple-use approval (multi-proof) consent, the processing time is 10 working days. Further details on these timeframes can be found in Section 48 of the Building Act 2004

If the information provided is not accurate you will receive a request for further information/clarification. When a request for further information is sent, the statutory "clock” is stopped and the consent is suspended until this information is provided in full. The “clock” is restarted once the requested information has been assessed as complete.

For more information on consent processing, please see Build Waikato.

A building consent authority (BCA) must grant a building consent if it is satisfied on reasonable grounds that the provisions of the Building Code would be met as per Section 49 of The Building Act 2004

Granting is the process by which a BCA records that the project has been approved and a building consent can be issued to the applicant.

If the building consent authority is not satisfied that the application complies with relevant legislation, the Building Control Processing Officer will refuse to grant the building consent. If this occurs you will be notified in writing of the decision and the reasons for the decision.

Once the decision has been made on your consent application you will be invoiced for any remaining Fees and Charges.

Details of how to pay via internet banking can be located on our Payment Methods page.

Your stamped and approved building consent documentation will be made available to you through AlphaOne. 

Please note: Work must not begin on the project until a building consent (and resource consent if required) has been granted and issued.

Get familiar with the building consent documentation:

• Check out the conditions of consent. A list of allowable conditions and information about them can be found here
• If present, a section 37 certificate means no work can begin until you have obtained resource consent.
• A list of anticipated inspections will be included. These may include inspections by your nominated engineer.
• Your consent will detail the documentation required so start collecting this along the way in preparation for final sign off. To avoid inspection delays it would be a good idea to notify our Council of your Licensed Building Practitioners before starting any restricted building work on site. 

You must print the approved plans and specifications and keep a hard copy on site.  

Making changes to approved plans and specifications can be expensive and cause delays.

It is important that any proposed changes are submitted to the Council before any changes are made to the building. For any changes, find out if you need to submit a minor variation or apply for a major amendment.

A MINOR variation is a minor modification, addition or change to consented plans that does not deviate significantly from the approved plans and specifications.

For MAJOR changes, you will need to submit an amendment application online, which will be treated as if it is a new building consent application and will be charged based on actual time spent processing the amendment application.

For information as to what is considered a MINOR and MAJOR change, please see Build Waikato. 

Building work must commence within 12 months of the date of issue of your consent, or your consent will lapse. To avoid lapsing, you may need to apply for an extension before the specified timeframe is reached. If you don’t apply before your consent lapses you will need to apply for a new building consent. 

You also need to complete works within two years however, you are able to apply for an extension before the timeframe is reached if you need more time.

For further information regarding delays and extension of time, see the Build Waikato website.