It is very important to identify early whether the land you are proposing to build on is subject to a natural hazard. The Building Act 2004 has specific rules that the Building Consent Authority (BCA) is required to follow and may affect the design proposal or even result in the BCA declining the application.
The types of hazards are specified under section 71 of the Building Act 2004 and include:
- erosion
- falling debris (including soil, rock, snow and ice)
- subsidence
- inundation (including flooding, overland flow, storm surge, tidal effects, and ponding), and
- slippage
A Land Information Memorandum (LIM) or Project Information Memorandum (PIM) will identify hazards that the Council knows about for a particular land site
The BCA must refuse to grant a building consent under section 71 unless the BCA is satisfied that adequate provision has been, or will be made to –
- protect the land, building work, or other property affected from the natural hazard or;
- restore any damage to that land or property as a result of the building work
If the BCA is unable to issue a consent under section 71 it may consider section 72:
72. Building consent for building on land subject to natural hazards must be granted in certain cases
Despite section 71, a building consent authority that is a territorial authority must grant a building consent if the building consent authority considers that—
(a) the building work to which an application for a building consent relates will not accelerate, worsen, or result in a natural hazard on the land on which the building work is to be carried out or any other property; and
(b) the land is subject or is likely to be subject to 1 or more natural hazards; and
(c) it is reasonable to grant a waiver or modification of the building code in respect of the natural hazard concerned.
If the BCA issues a Building Consent under section 72 it must also notify the consent to the Registrar-General of Land. Simply put the hazard will be registered on the title. This may have insurance and financial implications so the earlier this is detected and defined the better.
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