A last-minute rush to file building consent applications ahead of a 25% increase in fees has left the Dunedin City Council battling to clear a backlog of paperwork.
The council received 390 applications in June, with most of them arriving during the two weeks before an increase which took effect on July 1.
That compared with 169 applications received in the month after the fees went up, with applications tracking at a steady rate of between 34 and 54 each week during July.
"We were getting over double for the last two weeks, from the 20th of June to the end of June," council development services manager Kevin Thompson said yesterday.
"The fees went up and people would have wanted to get their consents through at the old consent rate, before fees went up 25%," Mr Thompson said.
Most of the consents were for home alternations, although some were for new dwellings.
The large volume of extra paperwork meant "a number of consents" were now taking longer than the 20 working days to process, although the backlog was expected to be cleared within weeks, he said.
"It has certainly affected them. We are not resourced to handle big peaks like that.
"In the next few weeks, we will be back to practically 100% being processed within 20 working days," he said.
Exact figures showing the percentage of consents being processed within the statutory deadline were not available yesterday.
