Identification and analysis of building consent, inspection and approval costs: Other council fees and charges

Fees and charges other than building consent fees typically comprise the majority of the fees charged, largely driven by financial contributions and other resource management compliance costs, and development contributions that have typically been implemented from 2004/05 onward.

The fees and charges for the example standard brick house in Christchurch, Auckland and North Shore cities are set out in Table 14 below:

Table 14: Council fees and charges

		Auckland City		Christchurch City		North Shore City
	Fee	% of total fees	Fee	% of total fees	Fee	% of total fees
Project management memorandum	$230		$195
Administration	$266		$145		$305
Process and Grant Consent	$607		$400		$1,245
Building Inspections	$1,221		$585		$990
Code Compliance Certificate	$499		$45		$150
Total Building Consent fees	$2,823	10%	$1,370	6%	$2,690	9%
Development contributions (estimate)	$20,918		$21,637		$27,457
Vehicle crossing Permit/Inspection Fee	$210		$60
Water Connection fee	$2,405		$500		$635
Waste Levy (charged by Environment Canterbury)			$480
Resource consent (lot share of subdivision consent)	$542		$500		$750
Resource consent monitoring fee			$75
Total other fees and charges	$24,075	90%	$23,252	94%	$28,842	91%
Total Council charges	$26,898		$24,622		$31,532

Note that all three councils include in their development contributions reserves contributions which are assessed at 7.5% of land value. For the purposes of this Table, a land value of $150,000 has been used for all three cities.

Building consent fees in the above examples range from 6% to 10% of the total fees charged by councils.

Fee policies and approaches to fee setting vary considerably across councils. Fees typically comprise a mix of:

• actual costs made up of a base fee, or deposit, plus additional charges based on actual time and costs incurred, and
• flat fees for service connections or earthworks applications and/or inspections.

Subdivision

• Fees typically comprise a base fee (deposit) plus time-based charges where these exceed the base fee.
• Deposits range between approximately $250 and $6,000, depending on whether the consent is non notified or notified.
• Associated certificate fees range between $40 and $150 per certificate required.

Street crossings

• Fees for those councils which charge them range from approximately $40 to $385, and may include charges for processing and inspection.

Service connections

• These range from separate fees for each of water supply, waste water and storm water, through to the council performing the connection at a set fee or actual cost, to being incorporated within a financial contribution charge.
• The wide variety of approaches is reflected in the following examples.
  • Hutt City - $95 comprising water supply $45, waste water $25 and storm water $25
  • Southland - $270 comprising $90 for each of water supply, waste water and storm water plus the actual cost to make the connection
  • Kaipara - $600 for water supply, $450 for each of waste water and storm water, plus inspection fees of $200 for each, amount to $1,900 for all three connections
  • Central Otago - $25 per service connection
  • Water connection fees of $2,405 in Auckland, $635 in North Shore, $500 in Christchurch, and $60 in Wellington

Earthworks

• Typically about $250 to $300 (where specified), although Masterton is only $22.

Development contributions and financial contributions

• Development and financial contributions typically range between nil and $40,000, but can go higher.
• Approximately 50% of councils charge development contributions.
• All councils are required to have either a financial and/or development contributions policy under the Local Government Act 2002.
• Policies vary considerably across councils.
• A number of councils experiencing high growth introduced development contributions between 2004 and 2006, coinciding with the introduction of the Building Act 2004. Given their size, these development contributions contribute heavily to the perception that the Building Act caused the significant increases in fees.

Development contributions are explained further in Appendix 4.