Ki te whakaroa ake i te tauoranga o tō hanganga

Extending the life of your building

If you are proposing to alter a building with a specified intended life, you may need to apply for an extension of life to proceed with the work (section 116 of the Building Act 2004).

What is 'specified intended life' of a building?

This is the period of time, as stated in your building consent or building consent application, for which the building will be used for its primary purpose (section 113 of the Building Act 2004).

This condition is commonly applied to building consents for:

portacoms
construction site offices.

How we apply the specified intended life condition

Our tip

Normally all building consents will have an indefinite life exceeding 50 years.

If the specified intended life condition is applied to your building consent or building consent application, it will be for a period less than 50 years.

If you propose that your new building, or existing building you want to alter, is to have a life of less than 50 years:

the building consent issued will be subject to this condition
the building work must be completed on or before the end of the specified period.

Altering an existing building with a specified intended life

If your building was built with the specified intended life condition included on the original building consent, then any future work is also subject to this condition.

This means that any work to alter, demolish or remove the building will need to happen before the end of the specified period. You can apply for an extension of life if your work can not be completed in this period.

Our tip

We cannot extend lifespan of a building with a specified intended life of under 50 years, unless we are satisfied the building can continue to comply to the Building Code for a longer time and we provide you written consent.

Applying for an extension to a building's specified life

You, as the building owner, must give us written notice if you want to extend the life of your building.

You will need to state why you want an extension and how long the extension should be.

The building will also need to be re-inspected to ensure it complies with section 112 of the Building Act.

You can also get free advice from us in person.

We can grant an 'extension of life' on your request, if we are satisfied the building can satisfactorily perform for a further specified time.

More information

See Change of use, alterations and extension of life on the MBIE website.