An RFI (Request for Information) stops your consent clock and eats designer time. Put in your own numbers and see the response cost, the delay, and the holding cost it adds — so you can weigh it against getting the set right first time.
Around half of NZ consent applications attract at least one RFI. Each round suspends the statutory 20-working-day processing clock until you respond.
Most RFIs come from a missing document or an inconsistency the BCA spots and you didn't. ConsentIQ checks your submission before you lodge and flags those gaps — calibrated to your council's request patterns from 420,000+ real data points — so the set clears intake the first time.
Two ways: the time to prepare and resubmit a response (often several hours of design time), and the delay — each RFI stops the 20-working-day clock and commonly adds two to four weeks. On a financed build, that delay carries holding costs too. This calculator estimates both from your own numbers.
When the BCA issues an RFI, the statutory 20-working-day clock is suspended until you respond. Total delay is the hold time plus your response prep and the re-queue for re-assessment — commonly two to four weeks per round, more with multiple rounds.
Lodge a complete, internally consistent set. Most RFIs are triggered by a missing document or documents that don't cross-reference. The document checklist helps with completeness; the RFI Checker flags the gaps that commonly trigger RFIs before you lodge.