We saw this offer recently: “CCC in 30 Days and COA in 45 Days!
But is it believable that you could get an assurance of obtaining approvals of CCC or COA with an exact date, during your residential sales process or at any other time? Or is it simply a marketing pitch?
1. Make an application for CCC to your Council:
2. The CCC is issued as long as your building meets what was specified in the Building Consent application, and you’ve proven that all the systems you used are going to perform as required by the Building Consent.
The answer is Yes, IF you have all the required documentation on hand and IF the Council doesn’t come up with too many Requests for Information.
In our experience (we process around 400-500 residential building consents per annum) it’s a rare CCC application that takes 30 days! (We find it’s 30 days if a competent builder has been engaged, but it can often take up to 60 days).
What’s involved here is that if your building consent is five or more years old, your CCC application is classified as an historic application. The council will need to access your building for durability.
1. A historic building consent is one which was processed under the Building Act 1991(BA91) or the Building Act 2004 (BA04) and has not yet had a CCC issued and is more than five years old (since the date of issue). Applications for code compliance certificates under the BA91 are assessed against the Building Code of the day, whereas applications under the BA04 are assessed against the consented plans. If you apply under BA91, the council is not required to apply the 20-day clock, but they may try to work within it anyway.
2. You fill out an application form which focuses on B2 Durability in the Building Code.
3. You also need to apply to modify the durability period, and agree with Council as to when the durability period commenced.
4. Then comes a Council inspection, called an E2 risk assessment (unless one already exists). This is usually completed, and you’re advised of the outcome within 48 hours. This inspection gives the building an E2 score. All applications under 10 years old will usually be inspected by the general inspections team. All applications 10 years or older are instead assessed for risk by the durability team. (Durability inspections are only allowed to be carried out for the legal owner and not for prospective purchasers.)
5. There’s a cumulative total of 20 ‘desk’ working days to complete the CCC processing. maximum processing time, the council has to deal with applications once all required information has been provided. The 20 day ‘clock’ does not include time taken for the applicant to respond to requests for further information, so during this time the processing 20 day ‘clock’ is on hold. Where more information is requested the total number of days from first applying through to CCC decision may be more than 20 in total. The council will then decide to either issue or refuse to issue a CCC.
6. Once the quality and accuracy of all submitted information has been assessed, you will be contacted by the Council to advise whether a Final Inspection is approved or not approved.
7. If the building passes the Final inspection, you get a CCC. If not, you must remediate what was found and re-book an inspection. Or the Council may decide that the failure is significant, and they refuse to issue a CCC. In this case, you may be issued with a Notice to Fix.
No! There’s a great deal of detail in the way of evidence to be provided and in our experience it’s nigh on impossible to gather it all in 10 days and then get the Council to meet their 20-day clock.
You’d need to be very organised and pedantic in the presenting of evidence, get a window of opportunity in the application for the new durability details going smoothly, and then get all your ducks in a row with the applications and inspection process.
Locating certification from installers and tradespeople would be difficult (especially if they are out of business) and obtaining proof of installation to Code can take time and require lots of evidence if photos are not available.
You can apply to your council for a Certificate of Acceptance (COA) for work done without a building consent, or in specific circumstances when a code compliance certificate (CCC) can’t be issued.
Certificates of Acceptance are based on the Building Code at the time the application is made rather than what was in place at the time a building consent was granted, should have been applied for, or when the work was actually carried out.
This can be important in a situation where you want to sell a house, because it can provide some verification for a building owner/future building owner that part or all of certain building work carried out complies with the Building Code.
The usual process is this:
1. Make an application for COA to your Council, and then the 20-day clock starts.
There are specific requirements for where you can and can’t apply, so make sure you check. If doing urgent building work, such as after or during a weather event or earthquake, it’s a statutory requirement to apply for a CoA and this can be done afterwards. Check what certification and proof is required and make sure it is all provided. This may include a Compliance Schedule or updated Compliance Schedule for any “specified systems” used in the building work.
2. There’s usually a front counter assessment (pre-application meeting) to make sure yours is an allowable application, and that all documentation has been included. There’s a fee to pay at this stage.
3. Inspection of the building work that’s the subject of the application
4. Review of the inspection itself and review against the application
5. An independent report from a qualified person (Building Surveyor, Chartered Professional Engineer or registered approved CoA consultant)
6. Obtaining evidence of compliance from installers
7. A decision is made by the 20th day as long as the work fits under the requirements of the application, all documentation is provided, and fees are paid. A territorial authority’s liability is limited to the extent the territorial authority was able to inspect the building work, so it’s actually a very good idea to take plenty of photos if you are ever doing building work without a building consent.
A qualified “yes” theoretically – but in our experience, it would be a rare situation.
Our personal experience with our own residential build in Auckland was a significant lapse between shifting into the home and receiving a CCC in July 2024.
The various delays related mainly to two issues: the council not filing evidence of on-site meetings with their inspector/s regarding stormwater management and losing their own photos taken at the foundations stage (all had to be re-visited) and the chasing of tradespeople to obtain certification after the work was done.
Stewart is the journal editor for SESOC (Structural Engineering Society New Zealand (Inc.)
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