Can You Build a Shed Without Council Consent in Canterbury?

If you're thinking about putting up a new shed or garage, there's a good chance one of your first questions is:

“Do I actually need a building consent for this?”

The answer might be no.

There are a number of building consent exemptions available in New Zealand, and some of them are particularly handy for sheds, garages and rural buildings.

Here's a simple rundown of what may be possible.

For a typical residential shed or garage, buildings of up to 30m² can potentially be built without a building consent, provided they meet the requirements of the relevant Building Act exemption.

Depending on the exemption being used, there are different requirements around how the building is designed and constructed.

For example, one pathway allows a detached building between 10m² and 30m² where the design or construction is carried out or supervised by a Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP).

There are also exemptions covering lightweight timber or steel buildings and certain prefabricated or kitset buildings.

Some of the important rules include:

• Maximum floor area of 30m²
• Single storey
• Maximum floor level of 1m above the supporting ground
• Maximum building height of 3.5m above floor level
• Generally at least 1m from a residential building or legal boundary
• No bathroom or other sanitary facilities
• No potable water storage

And even though you might not need a building consent, the building still needs to comply with the New Zealand Building Code.

Here's one that plenty of people don't know about.

Certain pole sheds and hay barns in rural zones can be built up to 110m² without a building consent.

That's not exactly a garden shed.

A 110m² building could be something like a 10m x 11m shed, giving you a decent amount of covered space for machinery, vehicles, feed or general farm storage.

There are some important conditions though. The shed needs to:

• Be located in a rural zone
• Be no more than 110m²
• Be single storey
• Have a maximum floor level of 1m above the supporting ground
• Be no more than 4m high above floor level
• Have a maximum unsupported roof span of 6m
• Not be accessible by the public
• Not be used for storing hazardous substances
• Meet the applicable wind-zone requirements

There are also setback requirements. The shed generally needs to be at least its own height away from any residential building, public road, railway or legal boundary.

To use this exemption, professional involvement is required. One pathway allows the design and construction to be carried out or supervised by the appropriate Licensed Building Practitioner. Another allows the design to be carried out or reviewed by a Chartered Professional Engineer.

This is probably the most important bit.

“Building consent exempt” doesn't mean “build whatever you like, wherever you like.”

Your project still needs to comply with the Building Code and you also need to check the rules that apply to your particular property.

Local District Plan requirements can still cover things like:

• Boundary setbacks
• Site coverage
• Building height
• Recession planes
• Permitted activities
• The location and use of the building

In some situations you could have a shed that doesn't require building consent, but still requires resource consent.

That's why it's worth checking everything before ordering materials or getting the digger in.

Once you get outside the requirements of the exemptions, you'll generally be heading down the building consent route.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

If you want a bigger workshop, wider clear spans, higher doors, more storage or a large steel portal shed, going through consent gives you much more freedom to design the building around what you actually need.

That's where 03 Sheds & Garages can help.

Whether you're looking at a small garage, a consent-exempt rural pole shed, or a much larger timber or steel building, we can look at your site and what you're trying to achieve and help work out the best way forward.

Sometimes keeping a building within an exemption makes perfect sense.

Other times, getting consent and building the bigger shed you really wanted in the first place is money well spent.

Because nobody has ever complained about having too much shed space.