Soon you will no longer need to apply for building consent to carry out drainage work that affects Council land or infrastructure – but approval will still be required to do the work.

From 1 December 2025, instead of applying for a building consent to do the following work, you will just need to request an approval:

• Lay private drains in Council-owned land (includes drainage laterals)

• Connect or disconnect drains to Council infrastructure (includes saddle connections/seal offs)

• Discharge stormwater to an outfall on Council-owned land

• Construct subdivision drainage that is to be vested in Council (ongoing ownership and maintenance by Council).

We will check your application to make sure the proposed work complies with the relevant standards. 

Once Council approval is given and the work is done, we will carry out an inspection much like we do now.

The approval application and guidance are currently under development but will be available on our website from Monday 1 December.

Support will be on hand to help you navigate the new process. 

Look out for our December Reinforce for more details.