REG_007: Building and Construction (Small Stand-alone Dwellings) Amendment Act 2025 — Building Act Sch 1A

REG_007: Building and Construction (Small Stand-alone Dwellings) Amendment Act 2025 — Building Act Sch 1A

Source

https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2025/59/en/latest/ — original source (opens in a new tab; the file is not redistributed)

Building and Construction (Small Stand-alone Dwellings) Amendment Act 2025

The statute behind Schedule 1A — RT_338's answer now rests on the LAW, not on guidance about the law

2025 No 59, version 37_0 as at 24 October 2025 (25 pp). Inserts Schedule 1A into the Building Act 2004. Read verbatim via pdftotext. Confirms REG_006 on every point — and sharpens two of them: the heater rule is a whitelist (broader than “no wood burners”), and the statute actively accommodates off-grid servicing.

Summary

The Act that creates the ≤70 m² building-consent exemption, by inserting Schedule 1A (“Other building work for which building consent not required”) into the Building Act 2004. This page records Schedule 1A verbatim — the primary behind REG_006 (MBIE’s guidance) and OT_102 (BRANZ’s bulletin).

Its four characteristics (cl 1) are the definitional gate; its thirteen requirements (cl 2(1)(a)–(m)) are the conditions. No principal-dwelling requirement appears anywhere — settling RT_338 at the level of the statute.

Key claims

- claim: "Schedule 1A cl 1 'Characteristics of small stand-alone dwelling' (verbatim, the definitional gate): 'A small stand-alone dwelling is a building that has all of the following characteristics: (a) it is stand-alone: (b) it is new (that is, it is wholly new and not an addition or alteration to existing building work or an existing building): (c) it has a floor area that is equal to or less than 70 square metres: (d) it has a single storey only.' FOUR characteristics. THERE IS NO PRINCIPAL-DWELLING OR EXISTING-DWELLING REQUIREMENT IN THE STATUTE."
  source_location: "Schedule 1A cl 1 (p.21)"
- claim: "Schedule 1A cl 2(1) 'Requirements' (verbatim): '(a) it meets the requirements for a detached dwelling, as defined in clause A1 of the building code: (b) it has a maximum height of 4 metres above the floor: (c) it has a floor level of up to 1 metre above the supporting ground: (d) it must not contain a mezzanine floor: (e) it has a frame made of lightweight building products (being steel or timber): (f) it is at least 2 metres away from any other residential building or any legal boundary: (g) it is built using lightweight building products for the roof that have a maximum weight of 20 kilograms per square metre: (h) its wall cladding has a maximum weight of 220 kilograms per square metre or less'."
  source_location: "Schedule 1A cl 2(1)(a)-(h) (p.21)"
- claim: "THE HEATER RULE IS A WHITELIST, NOT A BLACKLIST (verbatim): cl 2(1)(l) 'where heaters are installed, they must be either electric or gas heaters'. This is BROADER than BRANZ's negative rendering ('cannot include a solid fuel heater') - it excludes ANY heater that is not electric or gas, i.e. wood burners AND pellet burners AND any biomass-fed heating appliance. Also cl 2(1)(k): 'it must have an independent source of supply for electricity and, if gas is to be used in the dwelling, an independent source of supply for gas'. And cl 2(1)(m): 'it does not have a level entry shower requiring a waterproof membrane'."
  source_location: "Schedule 1A cl 2(1)(k)-(m) (p.21)"
- claim: "ON-SITE (OFF-GRID) SERVICING IS EXPRESSLY ACCOMMODATED. cl 2(1)(i)(ii): water supply/sanitary plumbing/drainage must 'connect to network utility operator systems (NUO systems), if those systems are available, or, if not available (within the meaning of clause 3), connect to on-site systems'. cl 2(3) (verbatim): 'For the purposes of subclause (1)(i) and (j),- (a) a connection to an NUO system or an on-site system does not require a building consent: (b) building work in connection with an on-site system does not require a building consent.'"
  source_location: "Schedule 1A cl 2(1)(i)-(j), cl 2(3) (p.21-22)"
- claim: "The plumbing restrictions EXPRESSLY DO NOT APPLY TO ON-SITE SYSTEMS. cl 2(2): 'The following additional requirements apply to the water supply, sanitary plumbing, and drainage systems for a small stand-alone dwelling (but DO NOT APPLY TO ON-SITE SYSTEMS): (a) there must be no more than 30 fixture units... (b) there must be no pumped systems within the dwelling: (c) the main drain must be no less than DN100, at a grade of 1:60: (d) all branch drains must be no less than DN65, at a grade of 1:40: (e) upstream vents... no less than DN65: (f) there must be no uncontrolled water heating.'"
  source_location: "Schedule 1A cl 2(2) (p.22)"
- claim: "cl 3 Interpretation (verbatim): 'not available, in relation to an NUO system, means- (a) there is no NUO system sufficiently close to the relevant small stand-alone dwelling to enable a connection to be made between that dwelling and an NUO system; or (b) there is an NUO system (as certified in the project information memorandum) that is sufficiently close... but the network utility operator informs the owner of the dwelling that the NUO system does not have sufficient capacity to allow a connection to be made'. And: 'on-site system means a system for the independent management of stormwater, wastewater, or water supply that does not connect to an NUO system'. 'floor area... means the overall internal dimensions measured between the finished internal faces of the external walls of the building'."
  source_location: "Schedule 1A cl 3 Interpretation (p.23-24)"
- claim: "cl 2(4): 'A small stand-alone dwelling can include a garage with internal access if the characteristics in clause 1 and requirements in clause 2 are met.' Commencement (s2): 'This Act comes into force on a date set by Order in Council' - THE ACT ITSELF NAMES NO DATE. (The January 2026 in-force date derives from the separate Commencement Order 2025, not from this Act.)"
  source_location: "Schedule 1A cl 2(4) (p.22); s2 Commencement (p.4)"

Neobiome Intelligence relevance

Settles RT_338 at the level of the statute. Schedule 1A cl 1’s four characteristics — stand-alone · new · ≤70 m² · single storey — contain no principal-dwelling requirement. REG_006’s reading is confirmed by the law itself, so the ~$4,000/dwelling building-consent saving is available at community scale on primary authority, not on guidance. The resource consent (NES-DMRU) remains unavoidable.

🔴 The heater rule is broader than anyone rendered it

BRANZ (OT_102) rendered cl 2(1)(l) negatively — “cannot include a solid fuel heater”. The statute is a whitelist:

“where heaters are installed, they must be either electric or gas heaters.”

That excludes anything that is not electric or gas — wood burners, pellet burners, and any biomass-fed heating appliance. Heat pumps (electric) are fine.

Open question with direct engine consequences → RT_341

Does a hydronic radiator fed by a community biomass district-heating loop count as a “heater” that must be electric or gas? If it does, a community of Schedule 1A-exempt dwellings cannot connect to a biomass district-heat loop — and biomass_district_heating is a live D01 technology (biomass_district_heating). The statute does not define “heater”. Not guessed.

🟢 The statute actively accommodates off-grid servicing

More favourably than BU704 conveyed:

• On-site systems need no building consent at all — cl 2(3): “building work in connection with an on-site system does not require a building consent.”
• The plumbing restrictions do not bind on-site systems — cl 2(2) expressly excludes them, so an off-grid dwelling escapes the “no pumped systems” and ≤30-fixture-unit limits for its own water/wastewater.
• “Not available” is defined generously (cl 3): either no NUO system is close enough, or the operator “informs the owner… that the NUO system does not have sufficient capacity.” Insufficient network capacity is therefore a lawful route to on-site servicing — not only remoteness.

Constraints the model should carry

• 2 m minimum spacing “from any other residential building or any legal boundary” (cl 2(1)(f)) — a hard floor on inter-dwelling spacing for a community of exempt dwellings; bears on the B4a co-housing archetype (0.05 ha/hh).
• Earth-wall construction excluded — cl 2(1)(e) requires a steel or timber frame; rammed earth and CSEB have no frame. Now confirmed in the statute, not merely in BRANZ’s summary.
• Level-entry showers excluded (cl 2(1)(m)) as at 24 Oct 2025. ⚠ BU704 (March 2026) states they “will be permitted… after a new LBP licence class has been established for waterproofing” — so a change is anticipated but is not in this version. Accessibility implication for an ageing-in-place community.
• Floor area is measured “between the finished internal faces of the external walls”, and a garage with internal access may be included (cl 2(4)).

Research targets

Research gaps

• RT_341 (high) — Does cl 2(1)(l)‘s “electric or gas” heater whitelist foreclose hydronic biomass district heating to Schedule 1A-exempt dwellings? The statute does not define “heater”. If a DH radiator counts, a community of exempt dwellings cannot use biomass_district_heating (D01) — a direct engine consequence. Needs an MBIE determination, a Building Act determination, or a practitioner answer.

(RT_339 remains partial — the NES-DMRU 2025 regulations are still to be sourced.)

Notes

Primary legislation, read verbatim via pdftotext -layout — data_quality: verified (the instrument itself, not a rendering of it). Supplied manually by the researcher 2026-07-14 as version 37_0 as at 24 October 2025.

Versioning is part of the provenance

legislation.govt.nz serves versioned, amendable text. This page records the Act as at 24 October 2025. Schedule 1A is expressly amendable by Order in Council (limited to technical building requirements — fundamentals such as the 70 m² maximum floor area cannot be changed that way), so the technical conditions recorded here can shift without a further Act. Re-check the “as at” date before relying on cl 2’s conditions in the deliverable.

Commencement precision: s2 says only “This Act comes into force on a date set by Order in Council.” The January 2026 in-force date cited by MBIE and BRANZ comes from the separate Commencement Order 2025, not from this Act — do not attribute the date to the statute. That Order is now held as REG_041 (SL 2025/321), which brings the remaining provisions into force on 15 January 2026; cite the date to it.

Connections

Links to

Sources (3): OT_102 · REG_006 · REG_041

Technologies (1): Biomass District Heating (Wood Chip)

Referenced by

Sources (6): REG_006 · REG_008 · REG_011 · REG_015 · REG_017 · REG_041

EDT domains (1): D04: Sustainable Habitat & Building Technology

Concepts (1): Regulatory Consenting for Off-Grid Communities…