You’re just carving off a piece of your land and giving it its own Title so it should be simple, right? You will just need a surveyor to draw a few lines on a plan, put it into the local Council and then the new Title can issue. That should not take long, right?
Wrong. Usually.
Read further to learn how you can prepare yourself!
Subdivision of land can be a complex process, and often the apparently simple land-swaps between neighbours to “tidy up” an existing fenced boundary can be the most complicated to achieve.
But first things first. Talk to your Accountant and make sure you will not have any unexpected or unwelcome tax consequences.
Get your Title checked for existing easements, Land Covenants or Council restrictions which might impact on your ability to subdivide. Speak to a planner/surveyor about the planning rules relevant to your property. Talk to your legal advisor before you get too far down the process, especially if your plans rely on the co-operation of neighbours. Talk to your Bank.
Getting all your ducks in a row, obtaining any necessary signed agreements from involved parties, and getting Resource Consent from the Council can take months to achieve. Once you have the Resource Consent there is then the process of complying with its terms – these could be extensive, requiring Geotech Reports, landscaping, construction of roading or accessways and laying of services, or they could be straightforward.
Your surveyor will usually need to visit the site to peg the new boundaries, prepare a survey plan and as-built plans for new services. They may need to liaise with the local electricity provider or Chorus New Zealand, or both. They will need to liaise with your legal advisor regarding the timing for lodgement of the plan and legal documents with Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ).
The LINZ process is two-pronged – there is the survey side, and the legal side, and both sides attract separate LINZ fees.
Completion timeframes are difficult to estimate as there may be many moving parts and many individual players to be co-ordinated, none of whom you have any direct control over. There are Council processes and legal processes to be worked through. And then there is the weather…
Ideally, with good communication between your surveyor and your legal advisor, the legal documents can be prepared and signed whilst your surveyor is co-ordinating the survey work and the final sign-off from Council. Once all the pieces have come together, the survey plan and the legal documents can be submitted with LINZ for the final processing stage and the ultimate issue of new Titles.
So not to put you off but just to make sure you go in with your eyes wide open, our advice is: do your homework and understand that no matter how big or small your subdivision is, no matter how complex or simple, obtaining an accurate estimate of costs can be difficult and you need to be prepared that it may go over.
If you need any advice, please contact our inhouse subdivision specialist, Bronwyn Lane.
