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Building Act 2004

Building - Building work—Project information memoranda and building consents - Limitations and restrictions on building consents: Construction of building on land subject to natural hazards

71: Building on land subject to natural hazards

You could also call this:

“Rules about building on land that might be unsafe because of things like floods or landslides”

You need to know about rules for building on land that might have natural hazards. A natural hazard is something in nature that could harm your building or land. This includes things like erosion, falling debris, the ground sinking, flooding, or landslides.

If you want to build a new building or make big changes to an existing one, you have to get permission first. This permission is called a building consent. The people who give out building consents might say no if your land has natural hazards or if your building work might make natural hazards worse.

But don’t worry! They might still let you build if you can show that you have a good plan to protect your land and building from these hazards. You also need to show how you’ll fix any damage that might happen because of your building work.

If you want to know more about this, you can look at sections 72 to 74 of the Building Act. These sections have more information about building on land with natural hazards.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM306818.

Topics:
Housing and property > Home safety and repairs
Housing and property > Land use
Environment and resources > Town planning
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Part 2 Building
Building work—Project information memoranda and building consents: Limitations and restrictions on building consents: Construction of building on land subject to natural hazards

71Building on land subject to natural hazards

  1. A building consent authority must refuse to grant a building consent for construction of a building, or major alterations to a building, if—

  2. the land on which the building work is to be carried out is subject or is likely to be subject to 1 or more natural hazards; or
    1. the building work is likely to accelerate, worsen, or result in a natural hazard on that land or any other property.

      1. Subsection (1) does not apply if the building consent authority is satisfied that adequate provision has been or will be made to—

      2. protect the land, building work, or other property referred to in that subsection from the natural hazard or hazards; or
        1. restore any damage to that land or other property as a result of the building work.

          1. In this section and sections 72 to 74, natural hazard means any of the following:

          2. erosion (including coastal erosion, bank erosion, and sheet erosion):
            1. falling debris (including soil, rock, snow, and ice):
              1. subsidence:
                1. inundation (including flooding, overland flow, storm surge, tidal effects, and ponding):
                  1. slippage.

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