Obtaining property information

Obtaining details of a property’s planning zone

Obtaining ratepayer details

Ratepayer name and address data may be made available to the public, where the ratepayer has not requested the details to be suppressed.

Where ratepayers have requested details to be suppressed, the Council may disclose the details where the person requesting the details has a valid transaction relating to the property. Examples of valid transactions include a Fencing Act agreement (where a person needs to contact the owner of adjoining properties), a resource consent application (where the applicant has to contact owners of affected properties), and a notice lodged by a utility company for urgent works.

All requests for ratepayer name and address details must be made in person at a Council office. The Council will only action three requests per customer and for any bulk requests the customer will need to contact Land Information New Zealand.

Obtaining an aerial photograph of a property or land section

Copies of aerial photographs may be obtained from the Environmental Policy and Approvals Unit at the Council Civic offices. Customers must come in person to ensure we are printing the correct information. Aerial photos are colour and were flown between 2004 and 2007.

Hard copy aerials can only be supplied on a per-land parcel basis i.e. one house and surrounding land parcel or multiple land parcels (as in the case of rural land) where all the parcels have the same owner.

For aerial prints covering large areas, please ask to speak to the Council’s Team Leader of GIS and Data.

Aerial photos for a single property (hard copy and electronic)
Due to copyright limitations hard copy and electronic images (jpg) of aerial photos can only be supplied on a per land parcel basis. i.e. one house and surrounding land parcel, or multiple land parcels (as in the case of rural land) where all the parcels have the same owner.

Hard copy aerial photos for multiple properties (large areas)
Due to copyright limitations, only hard copy aerial photos can only be supplied for multiple properties (large areas – more than one owner) i.e. electronic not available.

Pricing and availability
A4 size - $18 - can be printed while you wait.
A3 size - $25 - can be printed while you wait.
A2 size - $35 - not available while you wait, but are available 24 hours later.
A1 size - $45 - not available while you wait, but are available 24 hours later.
A0 size - $80 - not available while you wait, but are available 24 hours later.

Electronic aerial photos for multiple properties (large areas)
Due to copyright limitations electronic aerial photos for multiple properties or large areas can only be supplied to parties contracted to Council.

Pricing and availability
Time and materials will be charged with an agreed timeframe negotiated.

Search for a land record, title on a house or property

Viewing a property file

Residential property files
From the July 6 2009, the Christchurch City Council introduced electronic viewing of residential property files only. This new user-pays system provides a copy of the property file records on CD for the customer to take away.

There is a $25 charge for the new electronic property file viewing service and this can be paid by credit card, eftpos, cheque or cash (if requesting over the phone the only acceptable form of payment is credit card).

Customers can request property files by phoning Council's Customer Services Team on the 941 8999 or visiting any of the Council's Service Centres. It will take three working days to process requests as files are no longer held on site at the Civic Offices in Tuam Street or at the Linwood and Sockburn Service Centres. The discs can be collected from Council Service Centres (excluding Akaroa and Riccarton), posted out or, for an additional $5 charge couriered to customers within New Zealand (please note they cannot be couriered to PO Box addresses).

Information on the disc will include any Council records that we hold at the time of the request relating to completed Building Act and Resource Management Act applications such as:

• application forms
• drainage plans relating to consented work
• cpies of plans and specifications
• Code Compliance Certificates
• PIMs
• panning reports
• resource consent decisions
• associated documents
• property inspection reports.

Note: The information contained within each property file varies and we make no guarantee the information you require will be contained on the property file/disc.

If you are unable to interpret the information Council staff at the Civic Offices or the Linwood and Sockburn Service Centres will be available to assist.

Commercial property files
Commercial property files (this includes sports clubs, churches, etc) will continue to be available for hard copy viewing only; however, these will now be subject to a $25 viewing fee with additional charges for any electronic scanning or photocopying.

Hard copy viewing for commercial files is available at the Civic, Linwood and Sockburn Service Centre building counters. There is currently no option to have this information posted or couriered on CD.

Commercial files once received will be held until the file has been viewed or for 5 working days, which ever occurs first; before it is returned to off-site storage. (Please advise us if you cannot come in within the 5 days and we will try to hold the file for you, (if re-ordering is required an additional viewing fee will be incurred).

Banks Peninsula information
These changes do not apply to Banks Peninsula property information. These files will continue to be available at the Lyttelton and Akaroa Service Centres.