Building Consent And Resource Consent: What’s The Difference?

Building consent and resource consent are two different approvals issued by councils, serving different purposes and are governed by different legislation. A building consent sits under the Building Act 2004 and relates to how building work is carried out. A resource consent sits under the Resource Management Act 1991 and relates to whether a particular activity is permitted on a site. Although both are processed by councils, they assess different things and answer different questions.

A resource consent is about what is allowed to be built on a site. It focuses on land use, planning rules and the effects of a proposal on its surroundings. Resource consents assess whether a design complies with a district or regional plan and whether it is acceptable in that location — considering matters such as height, bulk, setbacks, site coverage, earthworks and impacts on neighbours, infrastructure and the wider environment.

A building consent looks at a different question: how that approved design is built. It sits under the Building Act and assesses whether the proposed building work will comply with the Building Code, which sets minimum performance standards for structure, fire safety, durability, moisture control and accessibility. When council reviews a building consent application, it is not deciding whether a project should happen on a site, but whether the work, as designed, can be built safely and correctly. Let’s put this into a real-life situation. Imagine you’re planning a renovation. You want to extend the back of your house to create a larger living area. On paper, the design looks great — but when it’s checked against the district plan, the extension sits too close to the boundary and slightly exceeds the allowed site coverage.

That’s where a resource consent comes in. Council isn’t looking at how the extension will be built at this stage. They’re looking at whether it’s allowed to be built there at all — whether the size, position and overall design fit within planning rules, and whether the impact on neighbours and the surrounding area is acceptable.

Once that question is resolved, a different one follows. The same extension still needs foundations, framing, roofing, plumbing and waterproofing. None of that is assessed under the resource consent. Instead, it’s covered by a building consent, where council reviews the technical details to make sure the structure will be safe, weather-tight and built to the Building Code.

In this scenario, both consents are needed — but for completely different reasons. One answers “can this be built here?” The other answers “is it being built properly?”

Now compare that to an internal renovation. You remove a load-bearing wall inside your house and install a beam. Nothing changes externally, no planning rules are triggered, and the neighbours are unaffected. In that case, a building consent is required, but a resource consent is not.

Once you start looking at projects this way, the distinction becomes clearer. Resource consent is about what is allowed. Building consent is about how it’s built. They often overlap, but they never replace each other.