Affected persons are persons (including companies, partnerships, trusts and so on) that might be affected by a proposed activity requiring consent. The definition of affected person is found in the Resource Management Act 1991 and determining who is an affected person is a mandatory requirement for planners when determining how to process an application. An…
Consents may be a necessary requirement for you to do what you want to do. It is important to front load your planning process and secure quality advice before you get started. This front loading can come in many forms, starting with: ensuring any purchase or legal access arrangements provide adequate protection; understanding what consents…
The Resource Management Act 1991 sets out how Councils develop plans, how consents are granted and importantly how people are held responsible when they do not comply with the RMA, a plan or a consent. The RMA does not solely focus on the person undertaking the activity or omitting to do what they are supposed…
One of the early matters a planner must attend to when they receive an application for consent is to determine whether it should be non-notified, limited notified or publicly notified. An applicant may also request their application be publicly notified. Why is notification so important? It determines not only the timeframes that the application must…
An often forgotten fish hook in business and land transactions is ensuring transfer of any consents required for your activity to take place. This can be something as straightforward as a discharge consent for domestic wastewater when you purchase a new home or as pivotal as a discharge consent to air for a manufacturing business…
Resource Consents have lapse dates. These dates are very important. If you haven’t started the activity and fulfilled all the conditions of consent that ensured your activity was set up as the decision maker thought necessary, you can find yourself without a consent. When you have done all that you needed, this is called ‘giving…
Resource consents are required to ensure the activity you want to do is carried out in a way that looks after you, the environment and those around you. Not everything requires a consent and there are permitted activities which can be done as of right. You need to take care however as often these permitted…
There has always been a tension between the way we interact with the world for our benefit and how we should interact with the world to avoid the detriment of others. Historically leaders have been regulating the use of the environment for centuries, with one of the first references to ‘sustainable’ making it into legislation…