Guide to developing a new property

Quote and agree

Once you’ve had all your pre-application questions covered off, the next step is to get an indication of cost. The below information covers off the quotation, agreement and payment parts of the process.

 

Quote

To get a quote for your job, you’ll need to create a Chorus account. Having a log-in will mean your quote will be saved in the system and you can come back to complete the order when you’re ready. You will also be able to keep across the progress of the job once it’s underway and all the documentation will be available in one place.

To start the quote process you'll be asked a few questions and provided your development fits within certain criteria, we can supply a quote straight away. In some instances, we may need a few more details and we will assess your request before we supply a quote.

Once the quote is completed, you can print a copy to supply to council for the resource consent process, or when talking to your bank.

TIP: It's best if you can accept the quote and pay for the job early, so that we can try to meet your timeframes. On average it can take us up to five months to get everything lined up ready for your site.

Quotation terms and conditions

Every New Property Development quote issued by Chorus is subject to these terms:

  • quotations are based on information given by the customer and any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the customer.
  • Chorus reserves the right to withdraw a quotation and re-quote should Chorus become aware of additional information that would impact the scope of any quotation.

Additional terms specific to quotations for new build requests and early design requests:

Additional terms specific to quotations for NPD Contract amendments:

  • amendment quotations are valid for a period of 30 days from the date of issue.
  • quotations are conditional on the customer accepting the then current New Property Development Contract with Chorus and making payment before the job can resume.
  • those terms may differ from the terms and conditions previously agreed and will supersede and replace those original terms and conditions if they differ. 
  • failure to accept amendment quotation or make payment of any additional charges will result in cancellation of the amendment and original contract will remain in place.

Agreement

When you’ve received your quote and are happy to proceed, the next step will be to agree to Chorus’ contractual terms for the work. To confirm you accept the quote, we will ask you to digitally accept our New Property Development Contract online. This contract outlines key responsibilities for both of us and is legally binding so it’s important that you have read and understood the terms.

You can download a copy of the terms so that you can seek legal advice to ensure you understand your responsibilities and the outcomes beforehand. You will also need to engage legal support if you need to register easements.

Key responsibilities

We have outlined the main responsibilities in the below high-level table. Responsibilities as they apply to your specific situation will be confirmed after you’ve agreed and paid and we start on your job.

key responsibilities

Changes and cancellations

We appreciate property developments are never straightforward and at times there can be unforeseen changes in project programmes and timelines. If this happens, please let us know straight away and we can work with you to agree an amendment to the development scope and advise if any additional fees are required, such as a design change fee.

If you choose to terminate the contract, we may retain the fees paid to cover any costs incurred by Chorus to that point of the process. This is outlined in the contract.

Privacy policy

We’ve outlined how we will use and protect the information you supply us in our privacy policy.

Learn more: Read our privacy policy.

Payment

Once you have formally agreed to the contract terms, you’ll then need to make payment. You can expect to receive a pre-payment invoice within a few days. This document will also act as your tax receipt once payment has been received.

By following the onscreen prompts, you can make a quick and easy payment online using a credit card or online banking. These payments will be recognised immediately, meaning your request will progress to the next step straight away. When you pay via an instant bank transfer using POLi, your payment details will be automatically entered into the relevant fields once you log in to your online banking.  If you choose to pay by a credit or debit card, it will incur a 2% transaction fee.

Alternatively, you can make payment via a manual bank transfer to our account: 03-0584-0256885-00. Please ensure you note your Chorus job reference to ensure we can easily match your payment to your job request. It can take a few days for the payment to be received and reconciled in our system, but we will let you know once it has been processed.

What happens next?

Once you have agreed to the Contract and we have received payment, we can get on with the work. Our first step will be to conduct a more detailed assessment which we will aim to complete within five business days. As part of this step, our team will:

  • confirm that all the details you’ve submitted align with the scheme plan you supply - if we notice any discrepancies, we will let you know
  • advise if there is any missing information that we will need you to provide before we can start a design
  • assess how complex the work is that we need to do outside the development boundary
  • advise if you will need to install materials within your development site as part of our agreement