It is common practice to place advice notes on consents. They provide a useful customer service, in that they can remind consent holders of other standards and requirements related to the consent and of obligations as a consequence of the consent. Advice notes are legally part of a consent.
Advice notes must be clearly labelled as advice notes to ensure they are not misinterpreted as consent conditions.
For example, advice notes could clarify:
-
the need to obtain other consents and permits. For example, matters of relevance under the Building Act 2004
-
any specific activities the consent is not issued for but may have been discussed during the processing of the consent
-
the ability to object or appeal the decision
-
the charging provisions that may apply, including monitoring charges, administration charges and financial contributions
-
the lapse period of the consent (where not altered by a specific consent condition)
-
the need to comply with the Resource Management (Measurement and Reporting of Water Takes) Regulations 2010
-
any other obligations the consent holder may have as a consequence of holding the consent.
Advice notes should not be worded as though they are conditions. For example, an advice note should not state that the consent holder “shall” or “must” do something. Instead use wording like, “A building consent will be required …”
Where advice notes are consistently provided on consent decisions that are the same to all consent holders, it may be useful to have booklet or leaflets that provide more detailed information and simply refer to them in the advice notes. However, it would be prudent to maintain brief important advice notes on the consent document as a long-term reminder.
