Legal description

Provide details of ownership of the property and legal description of the land, including regarding contaminants in the soil

Back: PIM

Next: Buildings

Proof of ownership questions indicate the type of evidence you will attach to your application to prove the ownership of the property. You must be able to show ALL the registered owners of the property.

When uploading proof of ownership files, you must ensure the files are no more than 3 months old. Your BCA is likely to issue an RFI asking for more recent proof of ownership.

If you load a file older than 3 months, the system displays a dialog listing the files that are too old, warning you of the likelihood of an RFI and asking you to either cancel or select to keep the file.

What type of proof of ownership are you providing?

  • Record of title is the most common evidence of ownership. A record of title identifies the legal owners of a property, as well as the property's legal description and any rights and restrictions registered on the title (such as mortgage, easement or covenant).

    You can request a copy of the records of title for properties affected by your project from Toitū Te Whenua Land Information NZ.

  • Other displays a list of other accepted forms of proof of ownership: Lease agreement, Sale and purchase agreement or Other document showing full name of legal owner.

    Please check with your BCA or council which other types of proof of ownership they accept.

Do you want your Building Consent Authority or Council to supply a copy of the Record of Title? is available when your BCA or council offers a service to supply the code of the record of title for you. There may be a fee for this service.

Legal description of land where building is located questions identify the land affected by the building work. Your building work may involve one or more parcels of land, and you must provide the details of all parcels.

Lot numbers and Deposited plan (DP or DPS) numbers are commonly used legal identifiers for a parcel of land.

Under the land transfer system, each parcel of land is described as a Lot on a Deposited Plan, for example Lot 1234 DP 4567. You can find legal descriptions on rating valuation notices or rates demands. You can also search maps on some local council websites.

Do not have Lot or DP numbers? Select this option when you need to provide another legal description instead of Lot / DP numbers. When this option is selected, Lot / DP numbers are set to read-only and Other legal description is made mandatory.

Valuation roll numbers identify parcels of land on which valuations are based for calculating rates. The valuation roll is maintained by territorial authorities for each district and is available online for some authorities. Valuation roll numbers are available on rating valuation notices or rates demands.

Other legal description provides for any other identifying descriptions of the land when you do not have the more commonly used identification information or to clarify scope of the information provided, for example where the affected property sits on multiple parcels or is to be subdivided.

Does this application include subdivision? Select Yes when the land is already or will be subdivided and provide more details.

Has a Section 224 RMA certificate been issued? A section 224 certificate confirms a survey plan has been approved under section 223 of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) for the subdivision and that all subdivision conditions have been met. You need this certificate to request a Record of Title for the subdivided land.

Provide defaults of all subdivision consents Provide the Subdivision resource consent number and Subdivision lot number for all subdivision consents. Select Add subdivision to add a new row to the subdivision consents list.

National Environmental Standard for Assessing and Managing Contaminants in Soil to Protect Human Health (NES) questions relate to the Resource Management (National Environmental Standard for Assessing and Managing Contaminants in Soil to Protect Human Health) Regulations 2011 used to ensure land affected by contaminants in soil is appropriately identified and assessed before it is developed - and if necessary the land is remediated or the contaminants contained to make the land safe for human use. The questions in this section help council to determine if the building work contains permitted activities or may require resource consent.

Do you have a detailed site investigation report? Select Yes if you have a report and to record Does the report demonstrate any contaminants in or on the piece of land are at, or below background concentrations? If you have a report, please attach it to your consent application in the Upload and attach documents step.

Does your project include any of the following? identifies any activities that are part of the planned building work that are covered by NESCS regulations. Please select all activities that apply or select None of the activities listed above. The Subdivision option is read-only and the system sets it to match your answer to Does your application include subdivision?

Activities or industries described in the Hazardous Activities and Industries List (HAIL) are being undertaken or have been undertaken on the land? confirms whether activities and industries that are considered likely to cause land contamination resulting from hazardous substance use, storage or disposal have taken place or are likely to have taken place on the land.

When you answer Yes or More likely than not to HAIL activities, you must also confirm the scope of disturbance or removal of soil.

Disturb more than 25 cubic metres of soil per 200 square metres of land? For example, excavation of foundations and clearing of topsoil for a dwelling with at least 200m2 footprint would likely fall into this category.

Remove more than 5 cubic metres soil per 500 metres square per year? For example, where spoil from the excavation of foundations, on-site effluent treatment and disposal systems, wells or bores is removed from site.