Divide and conquer

DIVIDE & CONQUER

Council approval is required, before you can subdivide land or alter boundaries, to ensure that a range of environmental (eg, water catchment) and service (eg, water, sewerage) impacts can be accommodated on the subdivided property within the existing infrastructure.

Among the environmental impacts are possible effects on water catchment. Among service impacts are the requirements for water services and sewers.

A subdivision may take different forms - a cross lease, unit title or fee simple. But above all, tackling one requires patience. Be prepared for it to take around six months from the time you contact a surveyor to the issue of new certificates of title by Land Information New Zealand for a straight forward two lot subdivision, or as much as year for a more complicated proposal.

It is also not a job to tackle on you own. This is definitely the time you need to call in the experts.

Surveyor and Cato Bolam Consultant’s, Director, Mr Joe Verryt, says, “It is not obligatory to use a surveyor to submit the application but in 99% of cases, this is what happens and the registered surveyor undertakes the complete process. “

Mr. Don Campbell from Harcourts, suggests: “Talk to a planning officer in the first instance as their advice is free and as a second step talk to real estate salespeople working in the area to see if the exercise will be financially viable. If everything stacks up you can then talk to a surveyor.”

The job of the registered surveyor is to carry out a legal survey and produce a plan to lodge with the application, showing levels, details of buildings trees and topographical information drawn to scale as well as legal and title information.

When we bought our 8.7ha property as one title and subdivided a few years later under the then rural subdivision provisions, we approached Cato Consultants (now Cato Bolan), to arrange a preliminary meeting to confirm that the property was sub-divisible. Common sense dictated, choosing a company with local knowledge - aware of the district plan, including zoning, with relevant topographical and conservational expertise.

Once we accepted Cato Consultants advice as to the best way to create two titles, they physically undertook the survey, placed the survey pegs, drew up the new survey plan and submitted the whole proposal to council.

Our property could be subdivided because we were able to achieve two economic units. However, had part of the land been awkward, swampy or steep and hence unable to be economically utilized as part of the large title, it may also have been able to be subdivided.

We were also required to create an esplanade reserve - a strip of land 20m wide from the high water mark, because the original property came with riparian rights to the upper harbour. (This is created for the purposes of protecting conservation values and enabling public access to or along the sea, a river or lake, or for recreational use where this is fits in with conservation values). Be aware though, the esplanade/reserve requirement is put in place first, and that can mean the section may then be too small to subdivide.

Other possible issues that you may have to deal with include, the Council declining or requiring major changes to your submissions, to comply with access, especially where a main road is involved e.g. the position of an existing driveway might not be an acceptable area to automatically put in another driveway. Again enough space must be allocated to fulfil parking ratios and the width of driveway must be adequate for additional section use.

There will be fees to pay to the surveyor, local council, your lawyer and possibly an engineer. While council’s processing fees are based on the type of subdivision and number of allotments being created, any subdivision proposal also carries an obligation to contribute to council reserves to fund community amenities. Mr. Verryt indicated that urban reserve contribution is usually 6 or 7% of land value, but in a rural situation this will be based on the house value, because there may be a very large piece of land involved with the house.

Mr Campbell, confirmed: “Costs involved in subdivision fall into five main areas - survey costs, legal fees, reserves contributions, assorted council fees and installation of services. A good surveyor will give you an estimate. Be prepared to spend at least $30,000 to subdivide the average back yard with not too many complications.”

Mr Verryt also warns to be aware of differences between urban and rual subdivisions. “While the time factor for rural and urban subdivision is about the same, costs are a different matter. The difference in cost is relative to the infrastructure that needs to be put in place.” Much more is involved with urban subdivisions where housing density dictates the need to consider the capacity of existing services and provision of public amenities. e.g. parking issues (off-street parking), sewage, wastewater and stormwater, power, telephone and the ratio of green space/parks to houses.

Rural requirements, on the other hand, are generally not as onerous, because dwellings are further apart and there is less responsibility for the council to provide services.

When it comes to seeking out the right property, Mr. Campbell says, “If a property can be legally subdivided competent agents will have done their homework and will highlight the fact, but when you read ‘subdivision potential’ proceed with caution.

“The term is well illustrated by a property we are marketing in Beach Haven at present. Zoned 4a and over 1000m2 it could easily be subdivided were it not for the fact that access to the rear falls short by a third of a metre. This could be over come only by moving or altering the house or alternatively by coming to an arrangement with the neighbours.”

So don’t give up if everything doesn’t fall into place immediately. Check out the options. Perhaps you could move the house off the section, demolish it or re-locate on site to allow another dwelling. If you are close to the right amount of land per building unit, it might be worth trying for a specified departure, which will need your neighbour’s approval, but may have a happy result.

©2004 Linda Donald
All rights reserved
Appeared in The New Zealand Property Magazine
Words 1039