Granny Flats, Tiny Houses & Sleepouts: Compliance issues related to expanding your home

Boffa Miskell planners are familiar with the challenges homeowners and landlords face when looking for a cost-effective means of providing additional space on their property, either via a self-contained minor unit, a tiny house or a sleepout which shares facilities with the main house.

To complicate matters for would-be developers, each council in New Zealand currently has different rules and standards which can result in surprise resource consents. Some resource consents can be very complex depending on the rules and policy framework, resulting in an unwanted hearing process if neighbours oppose a development.

With the cost of housing and the cost of construction always rising, a prefabricated unit or tiny house is a tempting quick fix to needing more space for growing families and providing independence for family members and friends needing a home.

There have been multiple media stories of tiny house owners throughout New Zealand running afoul of neighbours and planning laws and discovering their low-cost alternative to traditional housing has become a nightmare involving multiple experts and hearings. Typical traps include distance from boundaries, the total floor area of all buildings, building in a flood hazard zone, or council plans not providing for minor units at all.

A homeowner may assume their new unit in their back yard is exempt work under the recent changes to the Building Act allowing for 30 square metres without consent, and discover they need resource consent or even building consent. The Dunedin office recently successfully assisted a client with a sleepout which was constructed under this scenario and required resource consent because it was in an area with restrictions on occupancy due to council wastewater infrastructure being too old to support even small developments.

To deal with these minor unit challenges, the government has recently released a discussion document on providing for minor residential units, commonly known as granny flats, without the need for a building or resource consent – Making it easier to build granny flats: Discussion document.

The document is open for submissions and has attracted a considerable amount of press and feedback, with submissions already numbering over 1200. Submissions are due on 12 August 2024. 

The government discussion document suggests standardisation of rules for minor residential units to eliminate the variance between Councils and unwanted compliance costs and timeframes. The consenting process would be replaced by a permitted activity notice or a Project Information Memorandum. The document also proposes eradicating council plan rules entirely and introducing a new National Environmental Standard. 

This is all good news for homeowners provided the approved solution strikes the right balance between reducing compliance costs and managing effects on infrastructure, hazards and the character of our towns and cities.

If you require assistance with a granny flat, tiny house or sleepout proposal of your own before new government standards take effect or are interested in some help having your say on the government’s discussion document, give the Planning team at Boffa Miskell a call.