Council Increases Building Consent Fees to Cover Compliance Costs

 Waitaki District Council has given notice that a 25% increase in building consent fees will come into effect on 1st May 2008.

 Strategy Group Manager, Richard Mabon says that Council faces increased costs arising from new statutory requirements under the Building Act 2004.

 “New systems mean more paperwork, more inspections and more staff time is needed. A national shortage of experienced staff has driven up market rates. All these things impact on costs.”

 Council must be accredited if it is to remain a Building Control Authority. Council believes it is vital to keep providing local building consenting services to the community.

 Council has chosen to recover this increase in costs from people who use building consent services rather than ratepayers.

 Richard Mabon says, “We are keeping a close eye on costs and the level of building activity to ensure that we balance the books. We are hopeful that this fee increase will see us through the next 12 - 18 months. Having said that, we are dealing with a fluid situation that we must respond to quickly and future fee increases within that time span cannot be ruled out.”