Building consent and resource consent serve different purposes. A resource consent determines what is allowed to be built on a site and whether a design fits planning rules and its surroundings. A building consent focuses on how that approved design is constructed, ensuring the work meets the Building Code.

The “estimated value of building work” often looks like a harmless box on a consent application. In practice, entering the total renovation budget, rather than just the work that actually requires consent, can trigger hundreds of dollars in levies that were never required in the first place.