In this article,
Amanda Douglas
, a partner of the Christchurch Lawlink firm of Wynn Williams & Co, considers a recent High Court decision which clarifies how long you have to implement your resource consent.
Do you have a resource consent that you have not yet acted on?
Prior to August 2003, if you obtained a resource consent, you had two years in which to act on, or implement, that resource consent and to carry out the activity permitted by the consent. For example, if you had obtained a resource consent to erect a house in breach of a District Plan, you had two years in which to erect the house before the consent expired.
In August 2003, section 125 of the Resource Management Act 1991 was amended so that the period in which a resource consent could be implemented was extended to five years. It was clear that the extended implementation period would apply to any consents granted after 1 August 2003. However, there was debate as to whether consents that had been granted prior to
