Resource Management Act & Building Act amendment [Mar 2009]

The new National-led Government has stood by its pre-election promises to introduce an amendment bill to the Resource Management Act 1991 within its first 100 days.  The Government has also introduced a bill amending the Building Act and is continuing with the Unit Titles Bill which was introduced last year.  The proposed amendments in these Bills will affect everyone associated with land development and submissions on these Bills close soon.

Building Act Amendment Bill (No 2)

This Bill follows on from earlier amendments to the Building Act 2004 which came into force last year and proposes to further increase the flexibility and efficiency of the building consent process.  The amendments are fuelled by a desire to facilitate the development and construction of affordable housing and to ensure that quality homes are constructed.  In respect of that second purpose, amendments to the Building Code are also proposed.

The Bill therefore:

·         Extends the Department of Building and Housing’s functions and powers to allow it to issue multiple use approvals for use and re-use for dwellings that are to be replicated on a substantial scale;

·         Reduces the statutory timeframe within which applications for building consent must be processed where the application involves multiple use approvals from 20 to 10 working days;

·         Differentiates between major and minor variations to consented building work to make it easier to get consent for minor variations; and

·         Makes getting a PIM voluntary where the building consent authority is also a territorial authority (city or district council).

Multiple use approvals will operate on a national level to provide a streamlined approach on a national scale to obtaining consent for buildings that will be replicated.  Individual building consents will still be required depending on local conditions.  Decision making at the local level will therefore be limited to site-specific issues. The processing period for these consents will also be reduced from 20 to 10 working days.

At present, variations to building consents are treated as if they were new applications.  The Bill proposes to amend this by differentiating between significant and minor amendments.  Minor amendments which do not affect the grant of a Code Compliance Certificate will no longer need to go through the formal building consent process.

The closing date for submissions on the Building Act Amendment Bill (No 2) is 9 April 2009.

Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Bill

The purpose of this Bill is to simplify and streamline the Resource Management Act 1991 (“the RMA”).  It aims to improve the quality and certainty of decisions, reduce delays, simplify procedures and ensure that penalties for offences are sufficient to deter would-be offenders.  The Bill forms Phase 1 of a proposed 2-part reform of the RMA.

The Bill addresses the following areas of the RMA:

·         Trade competition and vexatious or frivolous submissions and appeals;

·         Projects of national significance and the establishment of an Environmental Protection Agency;

·         The preparation of regional and district plans and plan changes including the further submission process and appeals against proposed plans and plan changes;

·         National RMA instruments;

·         Enforcement;

·         Decision-making processes;

·         Notification of applications for resource consent; and

·         Lodgement fees for appeals to the Environment Court.

Unit Titles Bill

This Bill repeals and replaces the Unit Titles Act 1972.  Its purpose is to modernise the legal framework for joint ownership and joint management of land and buildings.  The Bill seeks to address these matters on a socially and economically sustainable basis for communities and individual owners.

The key features of the Bill are:

·         How land is surveyed to create unit title developments;

·         A holistic management approach dealing with the responsibilities of unit owners and bodies corporate;

·         Decision-making processes for bodies corporate;

·         A robust disclosure regime directed at prospective purchasers as well as unit owners and bodies corporate; and

·         Cost-effective dispute resolution.

For more information contact Malcolm MacLean at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

The contents of this newsletter are of a general nature only. While the information is believed to be correct no responsibility is accepted for its accuracy. Readers are advised to establish the applicability of information in relation to specific circumstances and not to rely solely on the text of this newsletter.

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