The Hidden Risk Behind Removing a Wall

In 2022, Houzz New Zealand released an interesting report outlining the scale of home renovations across the country. According to the data, nearly every second home is being changed at any given time — 48% of Kiwi homeowners renovate within a single year. The largest group of homes undergoing renovation were built between the 1960s and 2000s, with the most common areas of work being kitchens, living spaces, and bathrooms.

Even though these numbers may not seem particularly compelling at first glance, they are important because they quietly point to where issues are most likely to arise. I’ve already touched on bathroom renovations in another article. Here, I want to focus on something just as common — removing one or two internal walls to create an open style, airy kitchen and living area.

This is where those statistics begin to matter. Homes built between the 1960s and 2000s were rarely designed with open-plan living in mind. Kitchens were typically separate, tucked away from the main living spaces — almost hidden from view, so the mess stayed out of sight. Today, the way we live has shifted. Preparing meals has become a shared, social activity — something that brings people together rather than separating them. Open-plan living naturally follows from that shift, creating spaces where conversations happen more easily, especially in a time when so much of our attention is pulled into digital screens. Thus, it is entirely understandable why homeowners choose to open up these spaces and modernise their layouts.

Fortunately, Schedule 1 of the Building Act does allow for certain internal alterations without the need for a building consent. Under Exemption 11, homeowners can remove or alter internal walls, provided those walls are not loadbearing, not part of the bracing system, not fire-rated, and not constructed from materials such as brick, concrete, or stone. When the work genuinely falls within this exemption, a building consent is not required — which can save time, reduce costs, and avoid the need for full design and approval processes. In reality, however, not many people are familiar with the Building Act or its wording. From my experience, when homeowners want to remove a wall, the only question that usually comes up is whether the wall is load-bearing. Builders are often asked to check if anything is bearing on the wall — and if not, the wall is simply taken down.

But the issue is that what cannot be reliably assessed by eye is whether that wall is part of the bracing system. In New Zealand, most homes rely on plasterboard to provide bracing. And the challenge is that a bracing wall looks exactly like any other internal wall once it is finished. There may be hold-down fixings within the framing that become visible when the lining is removed, but not all bracing systems require them. In many cases, there is no obvious sign at all, which makes it very difficult to distinguish a standard wall from a bracing element during demolition.

I have seen many situations where homeowners planned to remove walls, checked with a builder, and everything seemed straightforward — until I reviewed the property file. But what is the property file? Every house has one, although many homeowners don’t realise it exists until they need it. It is a council-held record tied to a specific address, and it holds the history of how that house was designed and how it has changed over time.

Inside it, you will typically find the original consented drawings, structural layouts, and records of any approved alterations. The level of details will depend on the age of the house, but in most cases, bracing plans or calculations showing how the building achieves its required stability are there. It’s not a document most people think to check when planning a small renovation, but it is one that should be looked at, especially if you are not applying for a building consent and are relying on your own judgement or that of your builder. The property file, along with the original design documents of your house, should be reviewed first to confirm that the proposed work genuinely falls within Schedule 1. If it does not, then the plans need to be reconsidered — or a building consent should be applied for.