The process for making the application is the same as the residential process, but commercial consents are more complex than residential consent applications.
Read more information here about the documentation requirements.
All applicants for commercial buildings should make an appointment with a Commercial Duty Building Officer by phoning 03 543 8400.
For commercial projects over $50,000 and/or a change of use, a pre-application meeting is recommended a minimum of three weeks before the submission of the building consent.
At this meeting building officers will identify issues such as access, fire, and other areas which you may need to talk to further to Council staff before you submit the consent.
At the pre-application meeting a building officer will check that you have the necessary information to submit your application.
What you should bring:
When you apply for a building consent for a new (or existing) building with specified systems, you will need to provide information with your application to enable the council to compile (or amend) the compliance schedule.
The council will require details of the design features of the specified systems and proposed procedures for inspection, maintenance and reporting so they can be included in the compliance schedule. This will also include the performance standard a specified system is intended to meet, and to continue to meet, for the life of the building. For example, a fire alarm system may be required to meet New Zealand Standard 4512:2003.
This document offers guidance on building warrants of fitness and compliance schedules.
It is important to provide a sufficient level of detail for each specified system. This information is often, although not always, attached to fire reports and if it’s not provided a request for further information will be generated. To avoid processing delays, please make sure the information referenced above is provided in the application documentation.
We recommend these are provided in the Reports (SD) File when uploading to the AlphaOne Portal. An example of the level of Specified System detail required is below.
In some cases your consent applications may need to go to the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) Fire Engineering Unit for design review under the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Act 2017. This requirement falls under section 46 of the Building Act 2004.
The types of applications that are required to be sent to FENZ are detailed on the New Zealand Gazette website.
The Fire Engineering Unit have 10 working days in which to provide their feedback to the building consent authority on
On a case by case basis FENZ may provide additional recommendations to help improve the overall safety of the proposed building design.
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