Charges and Fees

A site visit by the processing planner will be carried out for every resource consent application. Other experts like engineers and landscape architects involved with providing advice on the resource consent will also, in most circumstances, undertake a site visit. 

QLDC utilises external planning professionals to support internal staff. This is standard practice across the country to help councils meet workload demands within the Resource Management Act (RMA) timeframe. External planner hourly rates are the same as QLDC staff rates, and they have been trained in and have access to QLDC systems and processes.

The use of external expert consultants (e.g. landscape architects/urban designers/noise/engineering) where required will
be charged on a full recovery basis at their agreed Council hourly rate.

Your resource consent is allocated to a processing planner, who will be your primary contact. Senior planners may also provide guidance to the planner during processing, and a decision maker will review the decision report. The planner, senior planner and decision maker may charge their time to your resource consent number for any time spent working on your application. This is why you will see time for several planners appear on your invoices. 

Are your fees GST inclusive? 

All charges and initial fees are inclusive of GST and are payable on submission of the application to Council. Figures on your tax invoice are GST exclusive and GST is calculated on the subtotal. 

Do I need to pay my initial fee for my application to be accepted? 

As advised on our application forms and QLDC’s Fee Schedule, your application will not be accepted for processing until we have received payment of the initial fee (or until we have identified your payment if it was incorrectly referenced). 

What is a monitoring fee? 

For land use resource consent applications and designation related applications, the initial fee paid at lodgment includes an initial monitoring fee. The initial monitoring fee can be found in our Fee Schedule.   

When QLDC has granted a resource consent, we will carry out a site inspection to make sure the development or activity has been or is being undertaken in accordance with the approved resource consent decision and conditions. This prepaid initial fee is used towards the cost of these inspections. Monitoring fees for change of conditions and deemed permitted activities, if required, will not be taken out of the initial fee and will be charged at the hourly rate listed in our Fee Schedule. 

When will I receive my invoice? 

The initial application fee invoice is issued when your application is lodged, and invoices for additional processing time will be issued on a monthly basis until the processing of your resource consent application has been completed. 

Are there other costs involved? 

For resource consent applications the fee paid at lodgment includes a fixed administration fee. As per the Fee Schedule, for land use resource consent applications and designation related applications, the fee paid at lodgment includes an initial monitoring fee. Both current fees can be found in our Fee Schedule. 

For RMA section 127 change of conditions and deemed permitted activities, monitoring, if required, will be charged at the hourly rate listed in the Fee Schedule.  

With the exception of the fixed fees indicated in our Fee Schedule, the initial fee* amounts are a minimum initial charge and any further costs incurred will be invoiced monthly until the process is complete and all processing costs incurred have been recovered.  

*The initial fee will show as a credit on your first monthly invoice. Please note, it will be the initial fee amount minus the monitoring fee, if applicable. The credit will be GST exclusive with GST calculated after the subtotal.