Requests for further information

During the consenting process, building consent authority (BCA) or territorial authority (TA) staff may need more information from you to clarify some aspect of your application or request missing information. A request for further information (RFI) serves as a formal written record of the issued request and your response.

Objective Build notifies you as soon as the processing authority issues an RFI on your application or consent, and alerts you when your application or consent is suspended due to outstanding RFIs. You can see all RFI requests, your responses, and the dates of receipt and response on the application or consent overview page.

You include contributors to your application, including RFIs, by adding participants to the application and giving them view or higher access. For example, at different stages, you could add your architectural designer or drafter, your builder or a specialist product installer so they can provide request information.

RFIs slow down the consenting process so your aim is to avoid an RFI. Check your council's building consent application checklist, available on the council websites or by contacting your council, and confirm your application is comprehensive, accurate and addresses all compliance issues. The most common reasons for RFIs fall into four categories: quality of drawings, incomplete forms, failure to demonstrate compliance with the Building Code and missing relevant approvals.

The RFI process is used during the vetting, processing, planning and certification stages of your consent application. Objective Build uses a common RFI interface and process for all stages. Objective Build groups the RFIs by stage in the application and consent overview pages.

The statutory timeline for processing your application does not include the time that an RFI is open on your application. The statutory clock stops on the working day after the processing staff make a request, to indicate that they are no longer processing the application and that responsibility now sits with you, the applicant, to respond to the RFI. The clock restarts on the working day after the processing staff accept your response as complete and sufficient to support them to make a decision on your application.

People from different departments within a BCA and TA may process your application. Some external bodies, such as the New Zealand Fire Service, may also be consulted. Who is involved and when they are involved may vary according to the characteristics of the proposed building site, your planned building work, local regulations and your council's process. So several departments and some external parties may be involved in the assessment of your application. These departments may work sequentially, with each issuing RFIs in turn, or in parallel, issuing RFIs at the same time.

Each processor may have statements or questions related to your application. An RFI covers a single statement or question from one processor, so there is a one-to-one relationship between RFI and response and it is clear when the RFI is complete.

Multiple RFIs are grouped into a 'round' for more efficient processing. Each round groups the questions from a single processing location. Multiple rounds can be open at the same time when there are outstanding requests from different departments.

While you can work on each RFI individually, you can submit a complete round only. So you can submit your response to RFIs only when you have answered all the RFIs within the round.

After you submit your responses to an RFI round and the round is closed, if further discussion is required for an RFI point, the processor raises a new RFI and a new round starts.

During an open RFI round, Objective Build makes parts of your application form editable so you can add or correct some information. The system tracks these changes and notifies the processing authority of the changes made. After you submit your responses to an RFI round, you can view your responses but not cannot edit them.

The statutory clock stops when an RFI is opened on a consent application. Objective Build sets the status of the application or consent to Suspended. Suspended applications or consents are shown with a red application icon and a red suspended stage icon in lists on the Applications and Consents pages.

Image showing RFI notification on an application overview

Objective Build shows a red RFI notice at the top of the overview page on the application or consent. The notice includes a link to open the outstanding RFIs.

Image showing RFI round and question indicator numbers on an application overview page

The number of open RFI rounds for a stage is shown against stage tabs in the Request for further information section of the application or consent overview page.

The number of open RFI questions within a round is shown against the round title.