TDC raises building fees from March

Fees for building a new home in Tasman district are set to rise from March 1.

The way those fees are calculated will also change. From next month , the fees will be based on the assessed value of the building work, not the floor area of the house.

For instance, the fee is now $3888 for a single-storey home of more than 250 square metres. From March 1, the fee for that same house – with a likely assessed building value of between $300,001 and $499,999 – will be $4500.

The fee for new dwellings with a value up to $200,000 will be $2900 while those with a building value of between $201,000 and $300,000 will attract a fee of $3700. Any new homes or commercial builds with a value of between $500,000 and $1 million will draw a fee of $6950, up from $6615.

On Thursday, Tasman District councillors on the environment and planning committee agreed to the changes, which represent a hike of about 10 per cent overall and are expected to bring in an additional $183,000 annually.

Environment and planning manager Dennis Bush-King said the fee increase was to help bridge an expected $246,000 deficit, which is growing partly as a result of an increased workload with consents for new dwellings up 24 per cent compared with the past year.

Additional staff had been employed to cope with the extra work while still achieving about 98 per cent compliance with processing building consents within the 20 working day statutory time frame.

‘‘While the staff have come on board, they’re training so we’re still having to outsource some work,’’ Bush-King said.

There had also been additional costs for dealing with insurance claims and leaky building claims this year.

The building fees had not changed since January 2016 and it was ‘‘appropriate that we look at them on an annual basis’’.

While there was an expected overall increase of about 10 per cent, some fees will drop from March 1, particularly for low-value building work up to $11,000. The council was also looking at entering a memorandum of under- standing with building companies to offer a ‘‘simplified fee structure in return for improved quality performance’’.

Bush-King said the new fees and the changed method of calculation would align Tasman district with Nelson city and Marlborough district councils.

However, despite the changes, ‘‘we are still anticipating a deficit at the year end’’.

Cr Peter Canton said with the new computerised system, he had ‘‘always been told’’ it was supposed to speed up the process and make it cheaper, yet now the council was increasing its fees.

‘‘I’m not sure of the efficiencies, I think we might have to have a bit of a think tank over the efficiencies of our new systems.’’

Committee chairman Tim King said the greater use of technology ‘‘should theoretically, if you follow the logic, make it more efficient and cheaper – but it never does’’.

Mayor Richard Kempthorne said the feedback the council received was that timelines in consent applications was ‘‘the most important thing and as long as our fees and charges are fair, and we’re getting through on time, I think that’s what people are most interested in’’.

King said as long as the council could deliver the outcome, ‘‘then I think the cost will be acceptable’’.

‘‘If the cost goes up and our performance drops, then that is not an acceptable outcome so we need to be really sure that we are delivering the outcome.’’