Invercargill City Council’s building control fees and charges are to change from July 1, 2012, to give people more certainty when they are planning building projects.
Council’s Building Regulation Services Manager Simon Tonkin said the new building consent fee structure would be charged on a unit rate basis, where fees would be charged per square metre.
“The new fee structure will simplify how fees are charged by establishing a fee which is set at the time of application," he said.
Under the old structure, which relied on time tracking and billing by the hour, it was difficult for applicants to estimate the cost of building fees when planning a project,” he said. "The new fees would be based on the floor area affected. For example, if a wall was removed, the areas of the rooms on both sides of the demolished wall would be used to calculate the fee."
Mr Tonkin said that the advantage of the new structure was that it meant there would be no surprises, as the published fee was exactly what applicants would be charged.
The published fee would capture the staff time required to process an application and applicants would not incur a monetary penalty for failing one inspection.
However, if an application received a second request for information, or should an application fail a second inspection for the same stage of the construction, additional fees would be charged, he said. “The charging of an extra fee for work above that considered in the initial cost will allow Council to recoup the true cost of processing the application and ensures that ratepayers are not subsidising development.”
Mr Tonkin said most building consent applications would be subject to a minimum fee of $110 and a maximum fee of $20,000. The exception was construction projects with an estimated construction value greater than $4 million, where a flat rate of 0.8% of the construction value would be charged.
Mr Tonkin said people with questions or concerns could contact him directly at Council on (03) 211-1777 or email simon.tonkin@icc.govt.nz
Examples
How the new fees would be charged for different developments:
Example 1: dwelling
A 200m2 dwelling
200m2 x $20/m2 = $4,000
Example 2: small residential alteration
Remove a wall between kitchen and living room, two rooms affected at 14m2 and 16m2.
30m2 x $12/m2 = $360
Example 3: restaurant
A 500m2 commercial establishment
500m2 x $22.50/m2 = $11,250
Example 4 – joinery shop
A 150m2 office space and 800m2 joinery shop
150m2 x $20/m2 = $3,000 (office)
800m2 x $15.50/m2 = $12,400 (work shop)
Total = $15,400
Example 5 – Large box store
An 8000m2 retail outfit
8000m2 x $22.50/m2 = $180,000
But, has reached the maximum fee = $20,000
Example 6 – Stadium Southland
Installation of a new multi-purpose stadium with an estimated cost of $12 million.
As the estimated cost exceeds $4 million a flat rate of 0.8% of the construction cost will be charged.
$12,000,000 x 0.8% = $96,000