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.

NPDC became part of the Central IQP (Independent Qualified Person) register on 1 December 2023. “Independent” means they have no financial interest in the building.

If you currently hold an IQP registration with NPDC, it remains valid until its expiry date. Before your NPDC IQP registration expires, you'll need to apply to the Central IQP panel for re-registration.

Joining the Central IQP register enables you to work across these six regions:

1. New Plymouth
2. Palmerston North
3. Manawatu
4. Tararua
5. Whanganui
6. Stratford
7. South Taranaki

NPDC is committed to enhancing efficiency and collaboration within the IQP community.

More information about the Central register and its guidelines

Register with the Central IQP Register

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

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

A compliance schedule is a document (issued by Council) that lists the specified systems (for example, automatic fire sprinklers, fire alarms, lifts, air conditioning systems) within a building, and the performance standards for those systems. The compliance schedule also states how the systems will be monitored and maintained to ensure they are performing in accordance with the performance standard to make sure the building is safe and healthy for people to enter, occupy or work.

A compliance schedule is required for a building that:

• is not wholly a single household unit (for example, includes commercial and industrial buildings but not stand-alone houses) and contains one or more specified systems (including cable cars)
• is wholly a single household unit and has a cable car attached to it or servicing it.

Building consent applications are assessed to determine whether specified systems are being added, altered, or removed as part of the project. When the consent is issued, a list of the specified systems being added or altered, and their performance standards is attached. Compliance schedules as a result of building work are issued with the code compliance certificate.

A compliance schedule must be kept on-site unless at another place by mutual agreement with Council. It must be made available to Council officers, independent qualified persons, and authorised agents at all times.

Contact us if you want to amend an existing application.

Check out the Building Performance website for more information:

Find out about compliance schedules

Section 112 of the Building Act 2004 requires that an alteration must not cause a compliant building to become non-compliant, or a non-compliant building to comply to a lesser degree. Please refer to section 112(1)(b).

It also ensures that existing buildings have good standards of fire safety and access for people with disabilities. It does this by requiring that existing buildings comply as nearly as is reasonably practicable with means of escape from fire and access and facilities for persons with disabilities (if this is a requirement in terms of section 118 of the Building Act. Please refer to section 112(1)(a).

Section 112 (2) provides an alternative compliance path. This can be used when the proposed building work provides improvements to means of escape from fire, or access and facilities for persons with disabilities and those improvements outweigh the detriment of the building not complying with the relevant provisions of the building code.

Check out the Building Performance website for this information.

Alterations to existing buildings

You cannot make the proposed change until the council gives the owner written confirmation that the requirements of the Building Act have been complied with.

The term is specifically defined in the Building Act 2004, which includes regulations assigning a ‘use’ to every building or part of a building (schedule 2 of the regulations).

Schedule 2 divides the uses of all or parts of buildings into four broad types - crowd activities, sleeping activities, working/business/storage activities, and intermittent activities – and more specific use categories under each (15 in total)

A change of use occurs when both the following conditions are met:

• The use of a building (or part of a building) changes from one use to another as defined by the regulations; and
• The new use has more onerous or additional building code requirements than the old use.

For example, a typical residential home does not require access facilities for people with disabilities but may do if the building is being used for another purpose, such as a doctor’s surgery. This would be a change of use as both conditions are met.

Check out the Building Performance website for this information.

Change of use of a building