Building consent

All building work must be carried out in accordance with the Building Act and Gisborne District Council's District Plan. 

Note : There are some changes to the Building Act that may affect your building work.  The changes apply to most residential building work or renovations.

You can talk to our duty planner, or your own planning adviser, about your building project to make sure it will met the requirements of the District Plan.  It's best to do this before you apply for a building consent, to avoid any expensive changes to plans.

You need a building consent for building work as defined in the Building Act 2004 this may include:

• Structural building - includes new buildings, additions, alterations, accessory buildings (sheds) and repiling
• Additions or Alterations - also see minor building consent work 
• Most plumbing work
• Drainage work
• Heating (solid fuel fireplace), ventilation and air conditioning systems necessary for the functioning of the building
• Alterations to specified systems (commercial buildings)
• Lifts
• Site works associated with the building
• Relocation of secondhand buildings
• Retaining walls higher than 1.5m
• Retaining walls less than 1.5m that provide support for buildings, driveways or sloping ground
• Swimming pools and large tanks
• Decks that are covered
• Decks that are more than 1.5 metres from ground level
• Any building more than 10m²
• Dams

The following building work also requires a building consent.   

Minor building work  

Work must be under the value of $19,000 and be one of the following:

• House repiling- repiling an existing dwelling
• Shower over existing bath - where the bath is staying in its original position and no waste pipes are changing position.
• Minor internal alterations - taking out a load bearing wall and replacing it with a beam.  No work under this title shall include plumbing.
• Pergola to an existing deck - a rafter pergola covered with roofing.
• Minor plumbing & drainage work :
  • stormwater to kerb
  • any pipe work on a hot water cylinder
  • replacing existing sewer (clay to PVC - fee reduced to $180)
  • drain repair requested by Council following CTV inspection that does not require further inspection. 6m length of pipe (charged at half price), less than 6m - no charge.
• Septic tank repair or replacement - a septic tank assessment will be required with the application. More information on septic systems
• Repitching of an existing roof - increase the pitch of an existing roof using factory manufactured trusses but not including attic type trusses and not increasing the plan area of the roof.
• Enclosing an existing porch- with an area greater than 5 m² for sunroom or extra living space only, not to be used for sleeping purposes.  No plumbing work involved.
• Proprietary conservatories - factory manufactured conservatories that carry their own producer statement.
• Residential fences- which requires a consent, higher than 2.5 metres.
• Carport - (stand-alone or attached to an existing house) has 3 or more open sides and is greater than 20m².

Any other minor work may only be accepted under a minor building consent at the discretion of the construction controller or the manager of environment and policy.

Related links

Department of Building and Housing