Frequently Asked Questions

We love keeping your project moving quickly and smoothly! Once you reach out, it takes us less than 5 working days to send over a fixed quote, and as soon as the engagement agreement is signed, we’ll have your preliminary plans ready for your approval within another 5 working days. After you give those plans the big thumbs up, we will finalise and submit everything to the council in just 5 working days. From there, the council takes up to 20 working days to process the official building consent, and as soon as that final approval comes through, you are officially ready to kick off your building journey!

No. Everything is done online. Once consent is approved, your builder arranges inspections with council directly.

Minor changes before council submission are usually included. After consent is issued, changes become Minor Variations, a smaller consent application. We handle these too.

Yes. Bathroom plus wall removals, ensuite plus kitchen and multiple room layout changes: these are common combinations all in one consent. See pricing for an indication of how multi-scope is priced, or enquire now.

Our fees are fixed at a standard rate. See our price list on the website. We have a standard rate compulsory for any type of minor consent. For example if you are just adding in a new ensuite, then a standard rate will apply. If you are adding in a new ensuite and removing a load bearing or braced wall, then it would be our standard rate plus an additional fee for the wall removal.

Simply make an application on our website, complete the forms, upload photos of the area of works, existing and proposed sketches of the work you want to do with measurements, and the complete property fie (not just original plans). Once submitted we will vet the information and then email you a quote with an engagement agreement.

Minor building consents are any building works within the walls of a building. New ensuites, new sanitary fixtures like toilets, showers, or basins, new or replacing tiled showers. Removing a load-bearing or braced wall, adding in a new solid fuelled fireplace (wood fire).

If you are adding in an additional sanitary fixture to your building e.g adding in a new toilet additional to your existing toilet, converting your cubical shower into a tiled shower, replacing your tiles in your tiled shower. Removing a load-bearing or braced wall, adding in a new solid fuelled fire place (wood fire).

We specialise in all building works within the walls of a building. Primarily, new ensuites, new toilets and sanitary fixtures, new or altered tiled showers, removing load-bearing or braced walls, new solid fuelled fire place (wood fire).

We don’t do building consents for recladding, relocatable homes foundation and services consents, tiny homes, new homes, extensions outside the building footprint, resource consents, certificate of acceptance or retrospective consents. We also cannot consent a new bathroom in an existing exempt sleepout without existing documentation that the sleepout complies with the building code.

Once you have submitted your application on our website, we will vet the information and then email you a quote with an engagement agreement. Once the engagement agreement is signed we will make a start on the preliminary plans and send out our invoice for the preliminary plan stage. Once we have finished the preliminary plan stage we’ll send the plans through to you for approval (this may take a few back and forths). Once you have approved the preliminary stage, we’ll move onto the building consent stage where we will add the necessary information that council requires as well as fill out any council forms. We’ll also send out our building consent stage invoice. Once this stage is done we’ll submit the plans to council, working through the consent process until they’re stamped. At this point we’ll send them through to you to begin your project!

We can submit minor building consents New Zealand wide!

The simplest way is to look at your property file. Generally, there will be an original bracing plan to show what walls in your house are braced. Same with load bearing walls, your original plans should show you what walls are supporting roof, ceiling, floor or walls. You can always pop your head in roof space to see what is loading onto a wall. If you are in doubt talk to your local builder.

We require a minimum of 2x sketches. An existing plan showing all existing walls and sanitary fixtures. (You can use your original plan from your property file) and a proposed plan of what you wish to do, with measurements of all new walls, sanitary fixtures and ceiling heights.

For bathrooms we require all corners of a bathroom. Items we need included in the photos are all the sanitary fixtures, any existing extractor fans, or drainage outlets in the floor. We also need exterior photos directly outside of the bathroom to show any existing gully traps, vent pipes and/or extraction vents to the roof of soffits. If you are planning on removing a loadbearing wall, we need photos of the wall being removed and any affected areas including inside the roof space to see all the roof structural elements. For all other minor consents we require photos of the affected area.

Not to worry! We require a basic sketch of all floor levels of your building with lengths and width measurements of all walls including ceiling heights. We need photos of every corner of each room for us to quickly redraw your plan. Existing floor plans are important to show council the existing layout of the building and building use.