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Building your own home

There are laws you need to comply with when you’re building — whether you're hiring a builder or doing the work yourself.

Buying a section

Building on an empty section is more complex than altering or renovating an existing house. It involves more paperwork and legal processes — whether you build from scratch or move a house onto the section.

Some legal processes to consider:

  • land use restrictions
  • district plan rules
  • resource consents
  • land surveys.

Buying a section and preparing to build on it

Building your home

Understand the stages of building a house before you get started, these include:

  • organising consents
  • monitoring construction
  • making progress payments
  • approving variations
  • organising inspections
  • getting a Code of Compliance.

Stages of the building process

Hire your team

Choose a project team who can help you build your home, for example an architect, builder and project manager, who can confidently meet Building Code requirements.

You’ll need a licensed professional builder to do certain work.

Choose your project team 

Building the house yourself

If you want to build your own house and you’re not a licensed builder, you have to:

  • get an Owner-Builder Exemption
  • know how to meet Building Code requirements
  • apply for consents
  • let your council know.

Owner-Builder Exemption

Your rights and responsibilities when building a house

Make sure you understand your rights and responsibilities throughout the process. These include:

  • when you need a written contract
  • when your builder is required to give you a disclosure statement and standard checklist
  • what to do if something goes wrong.

Homeowner rights and obligations

Utility links and page information

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