Affected persons and written approvals

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 affected person may be asked to sign a Written Approval.  This approval records their agreement or lack of opposition to the proposal.  Once given it means the decision maker cannot consider any effects in respect of that person when deciding whether to grant the consent or not.

Like all things, the quality of the written Approval is dependent upon the quality of the information provided to the affected person.  The information should be a complete and current version of the application (including all of the supporting documents).

Where a written Approval has been lodged and relied upon by the applicant and Council, but it is based on insufficient or inaccurate information, the consent granted as a result can be judicially reviewed and possibly undone.

Feel free to contact us if you have concerns about how affected party approvals should be lodged to properly support your application or if you are concerned that an approval was relied upon incorrectly.