Saving time and money
Auckland Council has begun issuing five-day building consents to group housing companies under a Standard Dwelling Partnership Programme.
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Faster building consent approvals are being used by five group housing companies in Auckland.
Auckland Council has begun issuing five-day building consents to group housing companies under a Standard Dwelling Partnership Programme.
Staff from the council’s building, planning and development engineering teams work with the group housing companies to pre-approve standard plan layouts and detailing that meet building code compliance.
As part of the arrangement, the group housing companies use checklists provided by the council, which help them to produce applications, reducing the timeframes for processing their consent applications.
Doug Naylor, Auckland Council building control manager, says staff agree on any modifications to the companies’ internal quality assurance systems, which gives confidence the plans have been quality-checked by people who understand council requirements.
“At application lodgement, the questions are mainly about what is different about the site and the particular configuration of the home rather than staff having to focus on all the detail.”
Mr Naylor says the programme involves some additional investment upfront by the housing companies and council but it enables efficiencies when the applications are submitted.
As well as a faster service, consenting costs are reduced.
“The sped-up programme allows the council to operate more efficiently and it frees up staff time to work on unusual projects or to work with groups/ individuals who have not made similar investments in robust quality assurance systems.”
Another four companies are waiting to join the scheme.
Chris Hutching for NBR NZ Property Investor
Fri, 13 Feb 2015
Fri, 13 Feb 2015
© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.
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Saving time and money
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