Disclosure of natural hazards in LIM reports

This is a part of the Resilience feature

By David Hindley - 1 July 2025, Build 206

From 1 July 2025, people planning to build a new home and the building industry at large have access
to better information around the natural hazards applying to building sites. Owners of land affected by
natural hazards now have less power to block the disclosure of information that councils hold.

Under a significant amendment to the Local Government and Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, a council must include in a land information memorandum (LIM) report understandable information known to it about natural hazards in relation to land and the impacts of climate change that exacerbate natural hazards.

The law change protects councils who make the information available in good faith, removing liability in civil or criminal proceedings brought by disgruntled owners of affected properties. The law also requires regional councils to pass on what they know about natural hazards to city and district councils.

LIM reports

A LIM report from a city or district council is usually prepared at the request of a potential buyer of a property. It is part of due diligence around the purchase. LIM reports have typically included information such as rates valuations (including overdue rates), zoning details, building and resource consents for the property, stormwater and sewerage drains, land features and so on.

Information about natural hazards such as potential erosion, slippage or flooding has sometimes been included, but there have been many cases where the owners of land subject to hazards have fought councils to stop these details being recorded against their properties. There have been instances in recent years where councils have backed down in the face of legal threats and the information has not been included in LIM reports. How different councils provided natural hazard information in LIMs has also varied greatly. The law change addresses these issues.

Guidance on implementing the changes

Regulations have been prepared to help councils implement the changes – for city and district councils sharing natural hazard information in a LIM and for regional councils sharing natural hazard information with city and district councils.

Guidance includes:

how natural hazard information is summarised and presented such as requirements for headings and plain-language summaries
specific information to make natural hazard information understandable such as requiring councils to include hazard maps in the district plan.

The regulations make it clear that LIM reports are just information disclosure tools and that councils are not required to provide property-specific risk assessments or other further analysis for a LIM. Anyone purchasing a LIM report is still expected to undertake their own risk assessments.

The regulations set out broad headings that councils must use to help achieve nationwide consistency. Councils must include either known maps of natural hazards affecting a property or provide a link to an online natural hazard mapping portal with the known maps of natural hazards affecting a property.

What defines a natural hazard?

There are different definitions of natural hazards in different legislation such as the Building Act, the Natural Hazards Insurance Act and the Resource Management Act (RMA). The amended Local Government and Official Information and Meetings Act uses the definition in section 2(1) of the RMA: ‘natural hazard means any atmospheric or earth or water related occurrence (including earthquake, tsunami, erosion, volcanic and geothermal activity, landslip, subsidence, sedimentation, wind, drought, fire, or flooding) the action of which adversely affects or may adversely affect human life, property, or other aspects of the environment’. That’s quite broad.

Other sources of information

In addition to LIM reports, there are other sources of information on the natural hazards that apply to a property, including council maps and the record of title.

Council maps, typically accessible online, show the level of risk from hazards such as liquefaction, flooding, landslide, erosion and coastal hazards. Because producing these maps is expensive, larger urban councils typically have more maps or more detailed maps than smaller councils.

The record of title for a property can show further information:

When a building consent is issued subject to section 72 of the Building Act. This note on a record of title identifies the natural hazard(s) that apply to the property. A section 72 note means that the building consent authority is exempted from liability for damage arising from the natural hazard (Building Act section 392), the Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake (NHC) can fully or partly decline claims depending on the hazard (Natural Hazards Insurance Act section 77) and insurance companies may decline cover or may exclude cover for the relevant hazard.
Whether NHC has cancelled building cover or land cover for a property or limited its liability for future damage. It can do this under the Natural Hazards Insurance Act, for example, when a homeowner has not begun making repairs to a substantially damaged property within a reasonable timeframe.

A record of title can be obtained from Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand.