What are building consent conditions?

Conditions are requirements imposed on your building consent under the Building Act 2004, which are deemed necessary to ensure the compliance of the proposed building.

The conditions are listed on the building consent and must be complied with. There are five specific conditions that can be applied to an issued building consent and owners and builder/developers should ensure that they understand these and their implications if:

  1. The approved plans contain waivers or modifications to the building code issued by the territorial authority, section 67 of the Building Act 2004.
  2. the building consent has been issued with a notification condition that the land is subject to natural hazards, see section 72 of the Building Act 2004.
  3. the building consent has been issued subject to a condition to allow for building over two or more allotments, section 75 of the Building Act 2004.
  4. the building consent under section 90 of the Building Act 2004, has been issued with a list of specific inspection types that will need to be conducted by a council officer or agent (typically at specific stages of construction) and may sometimes be required to be conducted by other professionals like structural engineers. Professionals will have to provide documentation that they have conducted these inspections and they will need to be organised and paid for by the builder/developer/owner.
  5. the building consent has been issued with the condition that the structure has a 'specified intended life' as determined by the owner/application, section 113 of the Building Act 2004.

Where a resource consent under RMA has not yet been obtained and the Resource Consent will / may materially affect building work to which a PIM or a Building Consent relates. The Territorial Authority must issue a Certificate under section 37 of the Building Act 2004.

The granting of a consent is always conditional under section 90 of the Building Act 2004, enabling officers of the BCA to be entitled at all times, during normal working hours, or while work is being done, to inspect building work which is being carried out.