With many homeowners anticipating their category decision and looking into each of the categories in more detail, we’ve received some excellent ‘deep dive’ questions about Category 2P. Here are the questions, together with our answers.
Does the proposed Category 2P mitigation already assume consents will be granted?
Risk categorisation decisions include a review of all information available in council records (such as planning controls under the Unitary Plan), but detailed consenting work is completed in the design and consenting stage.
Category 2P projects will be subject to the usual resource and/or building consent requirements, so where a resource consent is required, homeowners will need additional site-specific planning and/or specialist assessments. The funding provided in the first stage of the 2P grants process covers these costs. In addition, we encourage 2P grant applicants to make use of the pre-application planning meetings with the council to discuss their planning or specialist reports, once these have been commissioned.
What happens when the designers and engineers we use to do feasibility and consents disagree with the proposed mitigation in the report?
There may be other options that will be effective at reducing the risk to a tolerable level, other than mitigations recommended by Auckland Council. If a different option is identified by your engineer, you can still apply for a grant to design and build those works, provided it meets the feasibility criteria (i.e. will be effective at reducing the risk, is expected to cost no more than 25% of the CV and can reasonably be delivered within two years).
If the mitigation gets declined a consent, does the council provide us with an alternative mitigation to try? Are there additional grants for re-scoping of new designs?
If the mitigations aren’t feasible because a resource or building consent has been declined, the property will change to a Category 3. There are no additional grants for re-scoping.
Can we build annual inflation into the quotes for a multi-year project?
No. Subject to meeting the feasibility requirements, the council will offer a grant for the agreed sum of the contract works, as at the date of entry into the grant agreement, up to the maximum value of 25 per cent of the CV of the property.
The grant is a fixed sum and will not be renegotiable in the event of cost over-runs. However, feasibility of construction is reassessed after the detailed design and consent phase is complete and a quote for the work has been obtained. This approach aims to minimise the risk of cost overruns.
When does the two-year period actually start? Is this from when we receive the quote or when building commences?
The two-year period starts from the categorisation date. Please note that this is not a hard target. We are flexible with the date and will have a better understanding of the scale of construction when we receive detailed designs.
Does the two-year period include the consents period?
Yes. Please note that construction feasibility is reassessed after the detailed design and consent phase is complete and a quote for the work has been obtained.
What happens if you can’t secure a fixed price quote?
The property owner is responsible for obtaining a quote for the scope of works and submitting the information to the council for evaluation of feasibility.
For more Category 2P questions, please visit the recovery FAQ page.
