Council fees exceed cost of tiny house

Rural ratepayers are being stung with exorbitant development contributions, most of which are being used by Auckland Council to fund infrastructure city-wide. This has emerged after a Whangaripo family received a $12,628 bill from council for development contributions for the construction of a tiny home on their farm. This was on top of the $9000 they had already paid for building and resource consent. As a result, council’s fees for the 28.8 square metre cabin, which is completely off the grid, exceed the cost of building the cabin. In email correspondence, a council official said development contributions are collected to fund upgrading and new infrastructure where there is additional demand place[d] on council’s infrastructure. By adding an additional dwelling this is deemed to be adding additional demand. The actual dollar amount charged is determined by the number of projects council has in its Long Term Plan for the funding area the site falls under.

“When an area has fewer developers, there are fewer anticipated growth units, therefore a higher development contribution price is required to recover the development contribution infrastructure charge.” Effectively, this means that rural households, in areas where there is little development, will pay higher development fees.

The biggest single sum in the Whangaripo family’s assessment was allocated for transport projects ($4044), but of that amount, only $393 was designated for transport in their ‘rural north upper’ funding area. By comparison, $2280 was earmarked for transport projects Auckland-wide.

The $2265 levied for reserve development also fell under the Auckland-wide funding area, which means the family may be contributing towards the development of reserves as far away as Papatoetoe or the Wynyard Quarter.

Whangaripo development

Melany and Anton Parker decided to build their tiny home on their Whangaripo property to accommodate Melany’s parents. The cabin is a unique structure first created by Melany’s father, Coll Bell.

Known as The Ark, it features a living area, kitchenette, bathroom and mezzanine bedroom, and is built on pontoons that double as water storage tanks.

Currently, Coll and his wife Caroline live in a newly-built house on the property, and Melany, Anton and their two girls live temporarily in an older home on the site. The plan was for Coll and Caroline to move into the Ark once completed, so their daughter and family could move into the house.

Seated at a dining room table strewn with copies of council documents and correspondence, Coll said, “All you’re trying to do is provide a home for your parents, on your property, and you’re lumbered with this sort of bullsh*t.

“If you were building a subdivision, and 20 people were going to move in, then that would put extra strain on the parks and the libraries and the rest of it,” he said. “We’re not putting any extra load on [infrastructure] because we’ve already lived here for so many years.” with 50 years’ experience, designing homes in coastal, rural and urban environments around NZ.

When council’s invoice for the development contribution arrived in March (following an original notification last August), Melany asked in writing for the calculation to be reassessed. She drew attention to the size of the cabin and the fact it would not be connected to any services.

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