Ordering a Property File

Written by:
Date Published:

The first step before beginning any plans for your home extension and/or renovation in Auckland is to order your property file from the council. We can’t overstate how important this is. While sadly much like the process of dealing with council in general, there is no guarantee that it will be useful and/or beneficial, it does have the potential to save you thousands.

A property file contains all of the information that council has on file about your home. This could mean everything from plans of your existing layout, to a complaint that the neighbour made about your dog twenty years ago.

The main reason why we recommend ordering a property file is accurate existing plans often mean that our architectural designer does not need to do a full site measure, and can proceed straight into doing the concept drawings for your home extension and/or renovation. This saves you anywhere between $750.000 – $1,250.00 + GST and also means you get to see your home extension and/or renovation realised sooner, which is a win for everybody.

A property file can also save you money if there are challenges with your stormwater and/or wastewater connection which is common with home extension and/or renovation projects on older homes. The first question that any good stormwater engineer will ask is if there is any information available on the existing connections, and it’s much cheaper for you to order a property file than it is for the engineer to. Ordering a property file saved one of our clients $67,321.00 + GST recently, as we were able to use the existing documentation to prove that our suggested solution for the stormwater and wastewater for their basement extension was more favourable then the more expensive outcome that council were favouring.

We’ve illustrated the steps for ordering a property file below:

STEP 1:

Google Auckland Council Property File and click the first link (How to Order a Property File)

STEP 2:

We’d recommend ordering your property file online as there are less queue’s and hassle that way, but you could proceed via any one of the three options below. If you choose to order in person or via post and have problems, then give us a call or send us an email and we’ll walk you through it as best as we can.

STEP 3:

Follow the instructions as per the council prompts. Sometimes the council website doesn’t play ball, but just be patient. If the worse comes to the worst, we can always order the property file for you, before our designer begins the concept drawings for your home extension and/or renovation

Step 4:

Enter the address of the property you are looking to complete the extensions and/or renovations at. If you live in a cross lease, make sure you double and triple check the address to make sure it is definitely yours before proceeding to the next step

Step 5:

Always, always, always order an urgent property file. You might not be in a hurry, but there’s no guarantee when a standard property file will turn up or even if it will turn up for that matter. While ordering an urgent property file costs $30.00 more, council are obligated to deliver it within three working day and if they don’t they will refund the extra.

Step 6:

Add your property file to the cart, click checkout and then follow the payment instructions. A massive congratulations to you too, you’ve just ticked off the first step of making your dream home extension or renovation a reality!

If you have problems with any of these steps then feel free to give us a call, we have ordered these countless times (as you can probably imagine) so are always happy to help! Otherwise when you get your property file, send it through to us via email and we will sift through the information for you and pull out what is useful. Just another way we make completing your home extension and/or renovation in Auckland easy!