Patience urged for new dwelling building consent processing
Waimakariri District Council media release: 9th February 2022
With a near record-breaking surge in building consents for new homes in the Waimakariri District, staff are under pressure to deliver consents within statutory processing time frames.
Waimakariri District Council processing time frames are currently occurring between 15 and 32 days. 42 percent of new dwelling consents were granted more than 20 days in the month of December 2021.
The surge of work has been such that between August and November 2021 between 10 and 20 percent of new dwelling consents were granted outside the 20 days - while 10 percent of all work was issued outside 20 working days over January 2022.
Building Unit Manager Warren Taylor says increased housing intensification in the District has created the spike in building consents for new homes.
“We’re seeing huge demand for consents - the highest since the earthquake rebuild. The team are working to process and issue consents as quickly as possible.”
To help the Council continue its usual high standard of service, a number of additional contractors have been engaged to help with the bubble of work, and two new consent processors will soon be joining the team.
Although there is more capacity in the consent processing area, the Council are also working to increase this in the PIM area. The high volume of work has increased the PIM/Compliance Check processing timeframes, and this can cause delays in processing a building consent.
“We’re doubling the capacity of this team, but it’s going to take a while to work through training and have everything firing on all cylinders.”
We’re mindful people are anticipating their consent will be issued promptly and we appreciate everyone’s patience as we work through this extremely busy time”, says Warren.
The Council will be contacting applicants to provide an estimate for when their job will be allocated to a consent officer.
When requesting an inspection booking, the Council advise to allow 5 to 6 days due to the current volume of work.