I made a plea on the 11th June for advice on how to hurry our Resource Consent along as the Council will not release it until the Engineer from Latitude Homes gives them the information they require, and these are the responses I received:
Good Morning, I am building a house through Manukau City Council (MCC) and my house has been stuck at the Resource Consent Stage for 6 weeks!
Our Building Consent has already been issued - and that was a separate 4 week wait - so I wasnt expecting a further 6 weeks (and counting) wait for another type of Council Consent.
We require a Resouce Consent because we are levelling out our section and moving quite a bit of earth to do so.
We are going through Latitude Homes to build our house and they are arranging the consent for us.
Latitude Homes (the building company) says they have sent the information that the MCC needs (a Geo-Tech Report & Engineering Report) and the Council just needs to sign it off.
I have been ringing the MCC every second day but always get the same answer - that they have not received all the information that they require and are still waiting.
Then when I ring Latitude Homes I get the same answer - they have been providing the Council with the required information but then the Council asks for something else.
The main issue sounds like an Engineering Issue which I assumed would have been made acceptable before Latitude Homes submitted our House Plans (that they designed).
What would you do to speed up the process? Any tips will be much appreciated.
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Ask the council for a list of what they want, then check with Latitude as to whether they've all been supplied.
Then physically take the proof to the council and don't leave until you've got some satisfactory answers(this might take a day or two, but if you're there in person councils tend to move a bit faster).
Good luck!
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stevee6 (144 ) 10:01 am, Fri 11 Jun #2
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Unfortunately, councils can and do take their own sweet time over everything. We recently built in Horowhenua DC area and it was just a nightmare. They seem to actively employ only people who repeatedly fail any form of commonsense test. It took 9 months to build a standard home. I thought HDC was the worst in the country, but sound like they're all the same. All you can really do is wait...
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bmwnz (113 ) 10:04 am, Fri 11 Jun #3
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By law councils have to process the consent within a set period, three weeks I think. However they can request additional information, and the set period starts again from receipt of that info. So whenever they cannot meet the statutory deadline, they request petty additional information as a stalling tactic. Truth is it will take them as long as it takes them
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lalbagh (44 ) 10:24 am, Fri 11 Jun #4
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I would've thought that when you first contact the council involved, they would have a list if everything that is required to build.
Is this not the case?
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net_oz (102 ) 10:44 am, Fri 11 Jun #5
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Thank you so much for the helpful advice. MCC is meant to be the fastest council in Auckland at the moment, and I was wondering if the one particular person who is handling my case is being unreasonable?
Just getting worried because this delay is proving very expensive.
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monika32 (30 ) 12:11 pm, Fri 11 Jun #6
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We built our own house recently ( rural, and that adds a whole lot of extras to it ) and our consents with Manukau City Council took 23 days from start to fininsh. Sounds like your building company is slack.
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rod525 (367 ) 12:39 pm, Fri 11 Jun #7
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rod525 wrote:
We built our own house recently ( rural, and that adds a whole lot of extras to it ) and our consents with Manukau City Council took 23 days from start to fininsh. Sounds like your building company is slack.
Yes, our Building Consent came through very quickly, but it is the Resource Consent that is taking forever. But thanks for your feedback.
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monika32 (30 ) 12:50 pm, Fri 11 Jun #8
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stevee6 wrote:
Ask the council for a list of what they want, then check with Latitude as to whether they've all been supplied.
Then physically take the proof to the council and don't leave until you've got some satisfactory answers(this might take a day or two, but if you're there in person councils tend to move a bit faster).
Good luck!
Good advice. Call the Council and ask them what information they still need to process your RC. When you get it, arrange a meeting and have them sign off that they've received everything. Chances are though they might charge you for their time to attend a meeting. Just as a matter of interest, why is your building company not getting this arranged if you are paying them to do so? Suggest you speak to them again and tell them that you will deal with MCC and any costs that are incurred will be for their account. Put this in writing too.
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haventrader (113 ) 1:00 pm, Fri 11 Jun #9
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monika32 wrote:
Thank you so much for the helpful advice. MCC is meant to be the fastest council in Auckland at the moment, and I was wondering if the one particular person who is handling my case is being unreasonable?
Just getting worried because this delay is proving very expensive.
wait until super city red tape starts
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bopbargains (450 ) 1:40 pm, Fri 11 Jun #10
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What I found helpful, is.. don't make an appointment with a planner at the council.. go there, and ask to see the duty planner, who is not necessarily the one handling your file - you'll usually be able to see someone quite quickly, and they'll arrive with your file, so you can say, this is what's happening, I need a list of what you're needing, and I'll get back to you once I have that information.. You could phone in advance for a list.
Once you have the info from the building company, go see the duty planner again.. ask if anything else is needed, and when you might hear from them..
Here, when I went through the Resource Consent process, I handled everything myself, including applying for the consent, once I had the technical information needed - by being there in person it made it that the process was simplified, without relying on others to communicate when they get around to it. I went with an approachable 'this is the information I have, is it all you need, when might I hear back about the Consent, I'm looking forward to that.. thanks for your help, I really appreciate it'
Using simplicity - the most straight-forward way to get something done, also takes a lot of the stress out of the whole process.
Good luck.. and enjoy having your new home built..
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juliewn (1985 ) 3:30 pm, Fri 11 Jun #11
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ps.. because you're doing the work yourself, there's less likely to be any charge from the Council for writing or the building company to write.. etc..etc.. and you'll speed up the process..
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juliewn (1985 ) 3:32 pm, Fri 11 Jun #12
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monika32 wrote:
Yes, our Building Consent came through very quickly, but it is the Resource Consent that is taking forever. But thanks for your feedback.
Yes, I read what you wrote. And yes, our building AND resource consents came through in 23 days as I said - consents. And as said above, do it all yourself at the council as we did - smooth sailing.
Edited by rod525 at 4:04 pm, Fri 11 Jun
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rod525 (367 ) 4:03 pm, Fri 11 Jun #13
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Welcome to the building industry, that's typical. I work at an Architectural draughting firm and we are going to contact the MP's about it as its gone beyond a joke. I suggest you write to your local MP or Rodney Hyde, the more voices speak up = higher chance of action (you'd think anyway)
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sooby (726 ) 11:32 pm, Fri 11 Jun #14
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From the end of August, Councils will be charged (via reduction in costs) for not processing resource consents within the 20 day statutory time frame. However, it sounds like your building company isn't providing the information that is required. Tell them to sort their stuff out.
By the way, you will be being charged for every time you call (as per you would with an Architect, Lawyer etc). So I would try and reduce this.
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hamtostie (422 ) 11:53 pm, Fri 11 Jun #15
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So glad to know we are not "special" in the eyes of the council. We have a fairly sloping section and need to have retaining done so we end up with a flat building platform. All the necessary engineering has been done and the retaining plan submitted to the council on 31 MARCH. We finally received notification yesterday that it has been approved. There were a few issues with ours for which no one wanted to take responsibility. We have stormwater drains running east to west along the southern boundary of the section. Retaining on the western boundary had been designed to bridge the pipes and the new depth of soil above the pipes would not be more than the allowed amount (downward pressure on the pipes). As luck would have it - the day I took the matter into my own hands (email to Mayor and Councillors) the approval came through. They wasted $4000 of our money in rent. Nero fiddles while Rome burns....
Edited by hilt_dwane at 8:46 am, Sat 12 Jun
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hilt_dwane (232 ) 8:45 am, Sat 12 Jun #16
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Well the problem is this. Because hardly anybody is building anything at the moment - there is not a lot of work ( for all those people that usually work at the councils - that deal with building permits and things like that.) Now if they where employed in the REAL WORLD - or lets say by a Private company - half of them would be out of a Job / laid off, or made redundant ... because there is just not enougth work to go around . So in reality ......... if you put in for a building permit on a Monday - you should have the consent on a Wednesday at the moment !. So at the moment everything is taking a long long time - basically its all ( GOOOOOOO SLOWWWWWW ) so it gives them an excuse to keep there jobs . Thats all . Hey its human nature to save there own arse ( when its on the line ) Its called job creation !.... lets face it - the council still employs just as many paper pushers as they did in the hey days of the building boom in reality they should be able to give you a building permit within a week ! or your rates bill should be going down like a rocket - because they only need to employ 1/2 as many paper pushers at the moment . Maybe you should write a letter to the Mayor and ask him about this
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