Environmental law – Resource consent lapse dates

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 effect to’ your consent.

The effect of lapse is that your consent essentially disappears, and you must make a new application for consent if you wish to commence or continue your activity.  This can be disruptive, expensive and subject to when your consent was granted challenging to secure.

You can extend a lapse date, subject to certain criteria being met and where you are unsure if you have given effect to your consent, you should always seek advice.

Feel free to contact us if you need advice on:

• What conditions and what activities you need to complete prior to lapse date of your consent.
• How to respond to Council or others if they raise concerns about lapse of your consent.
• How to extend a lapse date if you find yourself short of time to get everything in place.