Terms of service

Last updated: July 2026

Scope of our services

CiviEase helps prepare and manage consent, council and road-corridor paperwork. Depending on what you engage us for, that can include:

• Resource consent applications, assessments of environmental effects (AEEs), Section 92 responses and council liaison
• Subdivision, change-of-use, signage and retrospective consent support
• Corridor Access Requests (CARs), Works Access Permits and road-occupancy applications with any NZ road controlling authority
• Traffic management plans (TMPs), temporary traffic management, and related equipment and vehicle support
• Traffic impact, parking and access assessments, including vehicle crossings

We provide compliance support and advice. We are not lawyers, and nothing we provide is legal advice, where a matter needs a lawyer, a licensed cadastral surveyor or a chartered engineer, we'll tell you.

Quotes, costs and timeframes

We quote fixed-scope wherever we can: a defined piece of work for a known price, agreed before we start.

Costs and timeframes discussed on this website are indicative only. Figures like consultant fee ranges, council fees or Christchurch City Council's typical 20–35 working-day processing time are general guidance, not a promise for your project. Council fees are set by the councils and change; notification, hearings, Section 92 requests and specialist reports can extend cost and time beyond any estimate. Your quote sets out what applies to your job, and if scope changes mid-job, we'll tell you what it means for cost before doing the extra work.

Council decisions: the important part

The following wording appears on every page of this site and applies to everything we do:

CiviEase helps prepare and manage consent, council and road-corridor paperwork. All decisions rest with the relevant council or road controlling authority, and CiviEase does not guarantee approval of any application. Timeframes and costs discussed on this site are indicative only.

In plain terms: we prepare complete, well-argued applications and manage the process properly, but councils and road controlling authorities make their own decisions on their own statutory timelines. We cannot guarantee an approval, a processing time, or the absence of conditions.

Your responsibilities

You agree to:

• Give us accurate, complete information: an application built on wrong information can be declined or later challenged
• Tell us what you already know: previous consents, unconsented work, notices, neighbour issues
• Pay invoices by the due date shown on them
• Not start physical works that need an approval until that approval is in hand: applied for is not the same as granted

Liability

We take professional care with every application. To the extent the law allows, our liability for any claim is limited to the fees you paid us for the engagement the claim relates to. We are not liable for indirect losses, programme delay costs, lost sales, holding costs, or for decisions, delays or errors of councils and road controlling authorities. Nothing here limits your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 where it applies.

Confidentiality and your information

We treat your plans, letters and project details as confidential and handle personal information in line with our privacy policy and the Privacy Act 2020.

Governing law

These terms are governed by New Zealand law, and the New Zealand courts have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute.

Questions about these terms? Contact us: we'd rather explain something now than argue about it later.