Before starting a home based business, it’s important to understand what approvals or requirements may apply.

Where to start

Before making plans or starting any work, talk with the teams below. They can tell you whether your business can run from your property and what approvals you may need.

Please do this before you contact our building team or apply for a building consent.

  • Planning
    • Check if your business is allowed under the District Plan. Some businesses run by the owner can operate from home, but there are rules about things like noise, traffic, parking, signage, and opening hours.
    • Contact the planning team – email contactus@selwyn.govt.nz.
  • Selwyn Water Limited (SWL)
    • Check whether your business needs a water meter, a backflow prevention device at your property boundary, a trade waste approval, or a grease trap or other way to manage wastewater.
    • Contact Selwyn Water Limited – email hello@selwyn.govt.nz.
  • Environmental health
    • If your business involves preparing or selling food, offers beauty or personal care services, etc, you may need to meet food safety, hygiene or public health requirements.
    • Contact the environmental health team – email contactus@selwyn.govt.nz.

Building requirements

Our building team checks that buildings meet the Building Act, building code, and other relevant building regulations.

If you use part of your home for a business, this may be a change of use for that part of the building – eg:

  • Hairdressing salon.
  • Beauty therapy room.
  • Commercial kitchen.
  • Customer services areas or other spaces regularly used by customers or staff.

A change of use happens when part of a building is used for a different purpose from what it was originally designed for. See change of use of a building for more information.

Approval process  

  1. Define your business clearly – think about:
    • Services or products you will offer.
    • Whether you will employ staff.
    • How many customers you expect, and whether they will visit your property.
    • Opening hours.
    • Which parts of the building you will use, how people will get to them, and how they are separated from the rest of your home or other buildings.

    Having staff and customer on site may mean extra requirements, such as parking, traffic movements, toilets and other facilities.

  2. Confirm planning and water requirements

    Talk with our planning team and Selwyn Water Limited. They will help you work out what approvals you need.

  3. Check Building Act requirements

    Contact our building team to find out:

    • Whether your plans are a change of use for the building.
    • Which building code requirements apply to your business.
    • Whether you need a building consent or another type of application.
  4. Prepare plans and supporting information

    If you need to do building work, use a design professional to prepare plans and supporting documents.

  5. Apply for the approvals you need

Depending on your business, you may need one of more of these:

  • Building consent.
  • Building consent exemption.
  • Notification of change of use.
  • Health licence or registration.
  • Resource consent.
  • Trade waste approval.
  • Water supply or backflow prevention approval.

Starting early can help you avoid delays, and make sure your business is set up correctly from the start.