Thursday, October 5, 2017
Ross McCullough
OPOTIKI District Council is not expecting a temporary halt on urgent five working day Land Information Memorandum (LIM) applications to cause any major concern for property buyers.
On its website, the council advised there would be a temporary change to its urgent LIM application service with applications not accepted between September 25 and October 9.
Council regulatory team leader Ken Buckley said the halt was due to staff issues. A staff member who managed the LIM applications was on leave and their back-up had also recently gone on maternity leave.
He said contract cover had been arranged, but “it was a bit unrealistic” to expect to be able to process any of the urgent LIM applications.
“It’s just a temporary situation and we don’t expect it to cause any major concerns, but apologise for any inconvenience.”
A LIM is a report outlines all matters affecting land and buildings on a property, which can have a bearing on whether a sale agreement proceeds or not.
A rural/residential LIM costs $335 and a commercial/industrial LIM $630, with all urgent applications costing a further $160.
The types of information a LIM can contain include: Government valuation of the property and rates struck off for the current year; private and public drains and easement known to the council; any special features of the land including potential erosion, sinking, slipping, silting or build-up of land, flooding and such known to council; council consents, certificates, notices, orders and requisitions affecting the land and any buildings on that land; zoning of the property and other information.
This can be located on council’s LIM page on its website.