If you have the following you do NOT need a Site Audit Report and there is no need to continue reading:
- $100,000 to waste?
- Too much time on your hands?
- Love waiting in phone cues and dealing with the council?
Most of us don’t want any of that, we have put our heads together and found a better way.
What the Site Audit Reports provide:
- In-depth knowledge of Council requirements and fees for your project;
- Rules regarding relocated buildings for your area;
- Site specific information for your land such as boundaries, setbacks, services, building platform, covenants, wind and earthquake zones and more;
- Requirements for Geotechnical reports and other surveys or required inspections;
- A concise conclusion of findings and next steps if further investigations are recommended.
The following situations are the reasons WHY we urge you to do a Site Audit Report before buying land.
Pete found out why a Site Audit Report is important
We were approached by Pete after he bought a piece of land and wanted to buy a house for relocation. As always, we ensured that he knew that he can’t just put any relocatable house on his land and he would need to get all the information about his land first. He purchased our desktop analysis Site Audit Report. Unfortunately, this report uncovered the following problems
- His site was in a very high wind zone
- His boundary set backs were larger than what he thought
- Relocating a house into his area was a discretionary activity and it required a resource consent to be approved before he could continue
Much to his dismay he couldn’t put any house on his newly acquired land and he ended up wasting money, time and resources. He had to start all over again, and we are sure, next time he will do his due diligence on the land before he purchases it!
Site Audit Report helps Mary
Mary called us and said she was looking at buying a certain piece of land, but if she could find a suitable house to relocate onto her site. Kim, our sales team leader, spoke to her and explained that we can’t just make a judgement call on that, but we need to do a proper evaluation. Mary quickly purchased the Site Audit Report. Craig, our lead designer gave her a call a day later and confirmed details with her. The next few days he called council, drew up site plans and put together her personalised report. As it turned out, the site she was looking at was NOT suitable for the kind of house she was after. Although she spent $575 with us, we managed to save her thousands and a lot of heartache.
Stewart finds the perfect house
Stewart also contacted us before buying a property, he asked us about what kind of houses we have on sale. He wanted to get everything done as quickly as possible. Kim slowed him down and advised him to get a Site Audit Report so he could make really good informed decisions. He agreed. Megan, one of our designers, gave him a call and confirmed all details with Stewart. As she went through the site plans she found that the site was in an extra high wind zone and that we had the perfect house on sale. It was able to both fit on his site and have the correct specifications for an extra high wind zone. Stewart had initially discounted the house when he first saw it as it had brick cladding. However, that was the main component which made it work so well for his requirements. She created a site plan and directly placed the potential building into that plan, demonstrating that it fulfilled everything that Stewart needed. As Megan was able to match him with the right house he ended up saving weeks of project time and Stewart was over the moon to have spend the extra $899 to get the report done rather than having to deal with council himself.
Andrew was in the process of choosing a house and found one he loved. He already owned a site and just wanted to make sure that the house he wanted would fit on it. Our design team investigated his site and found a way to fit the house on his site, taking into account council required setbacks, outside living areas, the need for service connection and the on-site turning requirements. Andrew was able to proceed with confidence. Knowing that what he wanted to do was going to be permissible by council and went ahead and bought the house. The design team were able to create great inside and outside living areas for Andrew. Thanks to the TRHCo. design team he ended up getting all the required consents from council without hassles.
In every case, it becomes clear that spending $899 on a Site Audit Report was a worthy investment. Doing it earlier would have helped some and saved a lot of time and resources.
All our case studies are fictional based on real-life clients and projects. All names and personal information have been changed to protect the privacy of our clients.