If a slip presents an immediate danger to people, keep everyone away from the affected area and call 111. For other urgent risks, keep clear and contact Council, your insurer and an appropriately qualified professional as applicable before undertaking work.

This page describes a generalised slip remediation process. This is not legal or financial advice; you must take professional advice for your personal situation.

It is important to get the process right, as there can be significant consequences:

You may have a notice added to your title stating that a building consent has been granted for work on land affected by a natural hazard.

Your private insurer may restrict or decline future cover, and a notice on your title may affect future NHC claims.

You may pay for a design that you cannot afford to build.

You could pay for a design that cannot be built.

You could have non-Code-compliant work done, preventing Council from issuing a code compliance certificate.

Conversely, you might fail to act urgently when you could or should have.

Check likely building and resource consent requirements, and any potential implications for your title, at concept stage before committing to detailed design.

Read on for the generalised process for repairing a slip.

Tell your insurer promptly about the damage. Ask your insurer or broker what information is required.

Take photographs of the damage from a safe location before cleanup or repairs, and keep records and receipts for any expenditure.

If the damage qualifies for NHCover, the claim may involve the Natural Hazards Commission (previously EQC). In most cases, you will deal directly with your private insurer, which manages the NHC component of the claim.

https://www.naturalhazards.govt.nz/insurance-and-claims/claims/claims-process/

An accepted claim may not cover the full cost of repair or your preferred solution, and NHC land cover is limited. Before commissioning investigation or design, clarify with your insurer which costs will be covered.

While the insurance claim is processed, your insurer may arrange an initial site assessment, engineering advice or a preliminary repair strategy. This may be intended to assess risk and approximate the cost of repair. It generally won’t be sufficient to allow construction to start and may recommend further geotechnical investigation and detailed engineering design.

Some geotechnical advice or investigation will likely be necessary.

We can recommend engineers to complete the investigation and the subsequent design work.

Alongside the investigation, the engineer will generally produce a concept. This may be a sketch or a description of some options.

At concept stage the engineer may be able to give an 'engineer's estimate' so you know if the design is likely to be within your budget.

At this stage Slopework Ltd will not give a quote but, if the engineer cannot provide an estimate, we can give a rough order of cost. This is an approximate estimate that is appropriate at concept stage.

Design, consent fees, construction monitoring, and other costs are generally not included in a contractors price.

Without an engineer's estimate or a rough order of cost from a contractor, you may pay to complete a detailed design you can't afford to build.

You should not choose a preferred contractor based solely on a comparison of rough order cost estimates (see 'Tendering' below).

If a job is difficult or unusual, it can be prudent to have some early contractor involvement to discuss the feasibility of a concept. Slopework Ltd can provide a site visit and feasibility comments.

You do not want to pay for a detailed design to be completed only to find it can't be built.

There may be multiple concept designs, and often clients want to know which might be the most cost-effective.

Slopework Ltd can provide estimates for multiple designs.

Certain work is allowed without a building consent, but most structural work will require a consent.

It is important to get this right.

Exempt work may avoid consent costs, but incorrectly doing work without a consent has significant consequences.

There is a range of work that can be legitimately undertaken without a building consent.

Please contact us if you want further information on this.

After an acceptable concept is identified, the engineer will develop the design through to a set of detailed plans.

If the work is exempt from requiring a building consent and has not triggered a resource consent, then work may be able to start at this point.

When a detailed design is complete, there should be sufficient information for contractors to provide prices that are accurate enough to be worth comparing between contractors. Before this point, estimates will necessarily have been vague.

You should consider asking for two or three competing quotes from specialist contractors.

Be aware that accepting a quote may itself create a contract.

Don't just look at the total written on the quote; look at the detail.

A lump-sum price can be appropriate, but it should be supported by a clearly defined scope, quantities, assumptions, exclusions and a process for variations.

Check whether the stated quantities are fixed or subject to remeasurement, and who bears the risk if they change.

Check their exclusions and limitations. There should be some, and they should be reasonable.

Ask about what is fixed and what is provisional or 'measure and value'.

Some contracts include retentions or liquidated damages, but many contractors don’t agree to these.

At this stage Slopework Ltd will provide a detailed free quote with individual elements of the job quantified and priced.

You may choose a preferred contractor at this point.

Be aware that the consenting process may take several months. Statutory processing periods can be suspended while Council awaits further information.

If building or resource consents are required, the detailed design documents are now submitted to the Council.

There may be 'requests for information' (RFI) while consents are processed. These may require clarification or changes to the design before the consent is approved.

The owner is responsible for obtaining building consent and may appoint the engineer or another agent to apply. Technical RFI questions generally need to be answered by the relevant designer.

If a resource consent is required, we can assist with preparing and coordinating an application for your job.

When any final changes to the design have been completed and the necessary consents have been granted, you will have a final set of approved plans.

If the consent process took a long time or there were design changes due to RFIs, it is reasonable for the contractor to revise their price, subject to any existing contract. Most contracts will have a provision for this.

We feel that, with all of the above done, it is the right time to sign a contract.

Preparing a contract after consent avoids the need to revise the contract to reflect changes made during consenting. However, a contract can be signed before building consent is issued and can contain provisions for variations, provisional sums etc.

Once any required consents are granted, any pre-commencement conditions are met and a contract is signed, we can begin the construction work and organise the various inspections with engineers and the Council.

At the end, we will provide our completion documentation and assist the owner and engineer with the documentation required to apply for a code compliance certificate, where the work was carried out under a building consent.