Costs and fees

The consent application process is 100% user-pays. This means you pay for the time spent on your application by staff, plus expenses, which may include distance travelled, scientific reports and/or consultants.

A deposit fee is required at the time of lodging your consent application and it won’t be received and processed by Council until this has been paid. Every application is different, it’s not possible to estimate what it will cost to get your consent but you can find the current deposit fees, staff charges and other information about consent application costs through the RMA and Building Act Charges Policy.

A well prepared application costs the processing officer less time; therefore it makes sense to spend some time getting your application right before you lodge it. Any costs incurred over and above the deposit fee will be invoiced to the applicant upon a decision being made on the application.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council provides one hour’s free planning advice to consent applicants.