Commercial building consents

To enable a building to be constructed over a legal boundary, the affected allotments (whether on the same certificate of title or not) must be tied so that one cannot be sold or leased without the other.

There are two legal ways of addressing this issue:

• by obtaining a certificate from NPDC underection 77 of the Building Act 2004 that states that the affected land cannot be sold or leased except in conjunction with the other land subject to the building work
• by legally amalgamating the allotments by way of survey plan which places all the affected land under the same certificate of title.

In either case the affected properties must be under the same ownership.

Please feel free to discuss these options further with us before making a decision.

Requesting a certificate under section 77 of the Building Act 2004

Section 77 to the Building Act requires that when a building application is made to us (as building consent authority) to construct a building over an existing legal boundary(s), the consent cannot be granted until we issue a certificate under this section that the affected land cannot be sold or leased except in conjunction with the other land subject to the building work.

This condition is set out in a certificate authenticated by us and signed by the owner, and lodged with the district land registrar who makes an entry on each certificate of title or each affected allotment to which the condition applies.

 Section 77 of the Act allows us to accept the building consent for processing, but the consent cannot be issued until the certificate under section 77 has been registered against all affected property titles. This is the simplest method of allowing a building to be constructed over legal boundaries.

The fee can be paid at the time of application, or when the process is completed, but the fees must be paid before the building consent can be issued.

Amalgamating allotments

Alternatives are:

• to have the title(s) of the allotments amalgamated by way of survey plan, which removes the internal boundaries of the affected land, or
• restructure the affected boundaries so that the whole building is on one allotment.

These options require redefinition of the boundary by way of the survey plan to create a single allotment. This requires the services of a surveyor and can take four-to-six months to process.

We are unable to grant a building consent until the resurvey has been completed. This can cause lengthy delays to commencing construction. The costs involved in this process are significantly higher than that incurred with a section 77 certificate.

A building warrant of fitness (BWoF) is a statutory declaration issued annually by the building owner, or your Independent Qualified Person (IQP), to us. It confirms that the systems specified in the compliance schedule for your building have been inspected, maintained and checked in accordance with the compliance schedule for the previous year, and that they will continue to perform as required.

Building owners are required to engage IQPs who will undertake the inspection, maintenance and reporting procedures listed on the compliance schedule and issue the Form 12As.

IQP Register

Find out more about building warrants of fitness

A certificate for public use (CPU) is a statement by us declaring that it is safe to use an area of a public premise affected by building work before the Code Compliance Certificate is issued. We will take into account any safety measures that have been put in place.

Application for certificate for public use form

Application for Code Compliance Certificate form

CPUs can be used as an alternative to staged or separate building consents for large building projects.

Find out more about certificates for public use

Buildings containing certain safety and essential systems, known as specified systems, require a compliance schedule to keep them in good working order.

Contact us if you want to amend an existing application.

Find out about compliance schedules

Check out the Building Performance website for this information.

Alterations to existing buildings

Check out the Building Performance website for this information.

Change of use of a building