Property categorisation explainer

Background

Extreme weather in 2023 damaged many homes across Tāmaki Makaurau, and we are working to place properties into three categories, based on a new Government risk framework:

Category 1 – Low risk
Category 2 – Risk can be managed with flood protection or land stabilisation
Category 3 – High risk, house should be removed, and/or not rebuilt

WATCH: The property categorisation process explained (filmed August 2023)

Risk assessments and categories

To get to a risk category for your property, a detailed risk assessment is needed. We are unable to provide a category without this because every property is different.

The risk assessment helps build a picture of how likely it is that future severe weather events would pose a risk to life and whether there is a way this risk could be managed so it is safe for people to live there. The risk assessment gives us the information needed to apply a risk category to your property.

The start of the process for this is for you to complete the Landslide and Flooding Registration form. We will then start a risk assessment process for your property.

A risk assessment has two parts:

An initial desk assessment, based on existing information and any information you provide, which gives an indication of whether your property is likely to be low or high risk. The desk assessment also tells us if a site assessment is needed.
An on-site assessment to look at your physical property – this will be required if we think your home could be high risk.

The site assessments will look at whether there are changes that can be made at your property or in the surrounding area to reduce the future risk of serious flooding or landslides to the home. If there aren’t any practical and financially viable solutions and there is a risk to life, then it’s likely your property will be Category 3.

Do I need a risk assessment?

In some cases, it will be obvious that a risk assessment is needed – where damage was suffered in the weather events this year. Other houses may not have sustained any or much damage at all but are in areas that we suspect may be at risk in future.

We recognise that the uncertainty of not knowing whether your home falls into a higher risk category can be stressful, and that there are many families facing difficult financial situations. We are working as fast as we can to develop the categorisation process, but this has never been done before and there are many complex decisions to be made to ensure fair outcomes for everyone.

We extend our thanks to the many people who have already submitted information as part of the property categorisation process through the Flooding and Landslide Registration form. You can still fill out this form if you haven’t already – the information you provide is vital in moving forward a risk assessment.

Next steps if you’re waiting for a risk category

We’ll contact you as soon as we can after receiving your completed form. If you haven’t received an email from us yet, we are working through a large number of forms.

We’ll let you know if it is obvious that your property is low risk and falls into Category 1. If more information is required we’ll visit your property to undertake an on-site technical assessment.

We are undertaking thousands of assessments and we expect it to take months to visit everyone. We are aiming to prioritise people we understand to be most in need to give the worst affected people certainty as soon as possible.

Important information for Category 3 and Category 2P

During October, Auckland Council’s Governing Body made a series of key decisions on property categorisation. Decisions were guided by the council’s aim to support Aucklanders to voluntarily relocate from homes where there is a future intolerable risk to life. More information can be found in this article on Our Auckland.