Discounted Consents for Solid/Liquid Fuel Heaters

Kaikōura District Council Media Release: 16 March 2018

Reduced consents for solid/liquid fuel heaters.

Kaikōura District Council is offering a $50 reduction on the cost of consent for solid/liquid fuel heaters. The cost will be reducing from $300 to $250 for consents received between 21 March 2018 and 23 September 2019.

One of the recovery goals for Kaikōura District Council is to help residents rebuild as quickly, safely and stress free as possible. Living in damaged homes for any amount of time can be detrimental to people’s wellbeing, so getting homes fixed, safe and warm is a key priority.

KDC Building and Regulatory Manager, Mark Mitchell says, "We know the community has been going through a tough time, as residents continue to rebuild and repair their houses and find their way back to 'normal'. The Council want to help ease the pressure that winter brings for many people. We are offering a reduced rate for building consents for solid/liquid fuel heaters as we head towards winter. Consents for solid/liquid fuel heaters received between 21 March 2018 and 23 September 2019 will get a $50 discount."

Since the November 2016 earthquake, Council has processed 92 solid/liquid fuel heater consents. This is over a 50% increase in the number of these consents Council normally processes in the same time frame. With over 600 earthquake claims now settled, Council is sure there are many more homes whose repair or rebuild process will include a need for a solid/liquid fuel heater consent.

"The 92 consents processed so far are around 3% of the total dwellings in our District. We want to do what we can to help ensure our community are safe and warm this winter, reducing the fees for this consent is one small way we can help." said Mr Mitchell.

There are a number of other projects underway which also target the repair and rebuild process. “Our Winter Warmers and Find and Fix programmes put in place before last winter focused on helping people get temporary repairs done to make houses weather tight before the cold. This winter, some help for those in damaged homes to manage power, fuel or heating bills will also be available,” says KDC CEO, Angela Oosthuizen.

“The waste minimisation project continues to assist people to deal responsibly with renovation and rebuild waste. It is estimated that 8000 tonnes of waste will be produced as a result of the earthquake - the same as about eight years of waste for Kaikōura. Dealing with this issue is an essential project for the Council,” Oosthuizen said.

“We also have funding from the Lottery Grants Board to recruit a 'Rebuild Navigator'. The focus of this Kaikōura based role will be to assist anyone with build/repair needs, and to navigate the processes involved in building consents, resource consents, insurance claims and building work. The goal will be to help affected residents and the Council by making sure everyone has the information and support they need to rebuild safely, legally and effectively.”

“In addition, Council has updated the building consents section of the Council website, making it more user-friendly and comprehensive. Since the earthquake there has been a 30% increase in website traffic for building information. We expect the number of people looking for building information online to continue to increase and have improved the service available accordingly.”

Through projects such as these, Kaikōura District Council is enabling residents to build back as quickly and efficiently as possible.

More information about all building, housing, rebuild and waste work is available via The Council website.

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