Frequently Asked Questions

A Land Information Memorandum (LIM) is an official summary document issued by your local city or district council that compiles everything the local authority holds on record about a specific piece of land and its permanent buildings. It functions as a comprehensive property background check, detailing historical building consents, zoning restrictions, protected features, underground public utilities, and known natural hazards — all in one official file.

A Land Information Memorandum acts as an official, centralised archive of everything a local council has recorded about a specific plot of land over decades. It covers all building permissions, underground layout maps for water and waste utilities, historical natural hazards data, zoning rules under the active District Plan, current rating valuations, and future local infrastructure initiatives that could impact the value or quiet enjoyment of the property.

Skipping a LIM report is one of the most expensive gambles a property buyer can make. Think of it as a background check on the house. While an open home shows you polished staging, the LIM exposes the invisible liabilities — like severe council flood lines, structural faults, or historic building infractions. Missing these details can lead to insurance companies refusing cover, which instantly forces banks to withdraw your mortgage approval. Spending a few hundred dollars now safely protects you against a multi-thousand-dollar mistake later.

Under New Zealand law, local councils are granted up to 10 working days to compile and deliver a standard residential LIM. Expect roughly two calendar weeks for standard processing. Most metro councils — such as Auckland, Wellington, or Christchurch — offer an expedited urgent request service that drops turnaround to 3 to 5 business days for an additional fee. Note that working days freeze during weekends, regional public holidays, and the traditional council close-down period over Christmas and New Year, typically mid-December to early January.

You have two main paths to secure a copy. First, direct from the council: visit the portal of the specific local authority governing the property, enter the legal address, complete the application, and pay the upfront fee. Second, via the listing agent: because properties heading to auction move quickly, the seller’s real estate agent will frequently purchase the LIM ahead of time and distribute copies to all interested parties to remove due diligence bottlenecks.

Council pricing varies across regions, but residential buyers should budget within these ranges. Standard service typically runs between $370 and $510. Priority or urgent service usually sits in the $500 to $580 range. Commercial properties are highly complex and can cost anywhere from $600 to nearly $1,000 depending on the specific district plan.

When you review the paperwork, focus on six critical risk areas. First, the paper trail: verify every historical alteration or renovation has a signed-off Code Compliance Certificate, not just an open building consent. Second, environmental danger zones: look for notations regarding land instability, sea-level erosion, or overland stormwater pathways. Third, subterranean assets: find out where public sewer and stormwater mains sit — council pipes beneath the house footprint can block future renovation plans entirely. Fourth, district boundaries: check zoning rules, building height limits, and any protected heritage or overlay restrictions. Fifth, unpaid liabilities: ensure there are no backdated council rates or active Notices to Fix targeting structural issues. Sixth, local infrastructure: look for pending road expansions or neighbourhood rezoning that could alter the area.

Traditionally, the purchaser orders and funds the LIM as a key condition within their Sale and Purchase Agreement. This ensures full legal protection and direct recourse against the council if they missed a critical defect. However, if a house is selling via an intensive auction campaign, the vendor will often supply a copy to all bidders to ensure no one is deterred by the standard two-week council waiting period.

In New Zealand, property buying operates strictly under caveat emptor — buyer beware. Once the title changes hands, any unconsented building work, environmental risk, or structural liability becomes entirely your financial problem. Banks and insurance firms understand this risk and frequently refuse to finalise home loans or issue insurance policies unless they have reviewed a completely clear LIM report first. It is an indispensable pillar of real estate due diligence.

If something is labelled unconsented in a LIM, it means structural building modifications, major plumbing, or extensions were completed on the home without legal authorisation or inspection from the local council. Whether it is a converted garage, an unapproved fireplace, or a newly built deck, unconsented alterations mean the work has never been verified for structural soundness or safety by a qualified official. This exposes you to immediate council enforcement penalties, drops the resale value of the home, and creates significant hurdles when trying to secure home insurance or bank funding.

No. LIMIQ is designed to work alongside your property lawyer, not replace them. Think of LIMIQ as your advanced digital scout. It scans hundreds of pages of dense council data in seconds, highlighting critical red flags, missing certificates, and hidden hazards so you can spot major property dealbreakers immediately. You can then hand this targeted insight directly to your conveyancing solicitor, saving them billable hours and ensuring they focus exactly on the high-risk legal issues that matter most.

While the local council can take up to 10 working days to deliver a raw LIM file, LIMIQ processes and extracts the key data points within minutes of your PDF upload. Our advanced parsing engine immediately categorises consents, maps out hidden site utility lines, flags environmental risks, and delivers an interactive plain English summary dashboard — without the standard administrative delays.

Yes, you can upload LIMs for Cross-lease and Unit Title properties. However, a LIM only tells you what the council holds on record for that specific parcel of land. For Cross-lease properties, you must still have your lawyer manually check the Flats Plan on the Certificate of Title to ensure the physical building footprint perfectly matches the legal outline. For Unit Titles such as apartments, you will need to review the separate Body Corporate disclosure statements to get the full picture of structural maintenance funds and levies.

Yes. Our engine is equipped with advanced Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology specifically optimised to read faded, skewed, or scanned council printouts. While we can successfully process most legacy documents, the clearer the file, the more precise the extraction will be. If an uploaded document is exceptionally blurry, corrupted, or missing entire pages, our platform will flag the file and prompt you before a credit is applied.

The biggest red flag is an open building consent without a matching Code Compliance Certificate (CCC). If a LIM shows that a building consent was granted for a structural renovation, extension, or plumbing work, but a final CCC was never issued, it means the council never officially inspected or approved the finished work. This leaves you legally exposed to unconsented structural liabilities, potential council enforcement notices, and a high likelihood that your insurance provider will deny structural cover.

LIMIQ systematically scans your council document to catch hidden liabilities across multiple categories. Compliance discrepancies: open building consents, historic permits lacking a final CCC, and outstanding Notices to Fix. Environmental danger zones: overland flow paths, flood plains, sea-level erosion alerts, and land slippage or subsidence records. Infrastructure and utility encroachments: public wastewater or stormwater mains running directly beneath the house footprint or within future extension zones. Zoning and protected restrictions: specific District Plan rules, heritage building statuses, and protected native trees that restrict modifications.

LIMIQ operates with high precision, using advanced language models trained specifically on the distinct terminology, layout structures, and formatting styles used by regional New Zealand councils. It extracts explicitly stated facts, dates, and mapping overlays from your document. Because it relies on the text provided within the council’s file, it functions as a digital parsing aid rather than a physical structural inspection — it highlights what is written on the page so you do not miss critical details that a quick manual read could overlook.

Our credit system is straightforward and transparent: one credit equals one complete LIM report analysis. You can purchase standalone single credits if you have found your dream home, or buy a multi-pack bundle at a discount if you are actively bidding across several properties simultaneously. Credits remain active in your account dashboard and never expire, letting you deploy them whenever you need to evaluate a new listing.

Because our systems instantly consume computing resources to parse, analyse, and generate your custom property risk dashboard the moment a document is uploaded, we generally do not issue refunds once an analysis is processed. However, if your upload fails due to a technical system error or unreadable formatting issues, our support team will work with you to re-run the file or credit the analysis back to your account profile.

Your generated risk dashboard and processed documents are securely stored on our platform for 12 months from the date of analysis. This extended window gives you plenty of time to review details during negotiation loops, share pages with your bank or building inspector, or reference the data during a multi-month house hunting journey. You can also download a permanent offline summary copy at any point.