What is a LIM report, and what does it actually tell you?
Published 4 August 2026
A LIM — Land Information Memorandum — is the council’s file on a property, gathered up and issued to you as a single document. It tells you what the council knows: consents granted, work that was never consented, flooding and erosion risk, contamination, drainage running under the section, rates owing, and anything else recorded against the title.
It is one of two documents that should decide whether you go unconditional. It is not optional, and reading only the summary page is how people end up owning someone else’s illegal deck.
What’s actually inside a LIM
The contents are set by law, so every council’s LIM covers the same ground even though the formatting varies.
| Section | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Building consents | Every consent issued, and whether a Code Compliance Certificate was ever granted |
| Resource consents | Any planning permissions attached to the land |
| Natural hazards | Flooding, erosion, subsidence, slippage — anything the council has recorded |
| Contamination | Whether the site is on the council’s register of potentially contaminated land |
| Drainage and services | Where the pipes run, including any that cross your section |
| Rates | What’s owed and what the annual charge is |
| Zoning | What the district plan allows on the land |
| Notices | Anything issued against the property, such as a notice to fix |
The five findings that should slow you down
A consent with no Code Compliance Certificate. This is the single most common problem in a New Zealand LIM. Someone got permission to build, built it, and never got the council to sign it off. The work is legally incomplete. Your lawyer will need to advise whether that can be resolved, and your lender may care.
Work with no consent at all. A deck, a woodburner, a bathroom moved, a garage converted into a sleepout. If the council has no record of it, you inherit the problem — including the possibility of being told to remove it.
A flooding or overland flow path notation. Increasingly common, increasingly consequential. It affects insurance availability and premium, and it affects what you can build later.
Council drainage crossing the section. A public main running under the back lawn constrains where you can ever build, and repairs may mean the council digging it up.
A gap between what the LIM shows and what you walked through. If the floor plan in the consented drawings doesn’t match the house you viewed, something was built that the council doesn’t know about. This is the check most buyers skip, and it is the one that finds the most.
The timing trap
The LIM is the deadline that catches people out, because it sits inside your conditional period and you don’t control how fast the council moves.
Councils have 10 working days to issue a LIM. If your finance and due diligence condition runs for 10 working days, and you order the LIM on day three, you will be asking for an extension. Order it the day your offer is accepted, not the day you get around to it.
Then leave time to actually read it, and time for your lawyer to read it, and time to ask the council a follow-up question if something looks wrong. A 15 working day condition is far more comfortable than 10.
What a LIM won’t tell you
- Whether the building is sound today. That’s a builder’s report.
- Whether the title has an easement or covenant on it. That’s a title search, which your lawyer does.
- Whether the neighbour has consent for the thing they’re about to build.
- Anything that happened after the LIM was issued.
Treat a LIM as one of three documents — LIM, builder’s report, title — that together tell you what you’re buying. Any one on its own leaves a hole.
What to do with it once you have it
Read it yourself first, then send it to your lawyer. Your lawyer is looking for legal risk; you’re looking for the mismatch between the paperwork and the house you stood in. You are the only person who has done both.
If anything in it surprises you, that surprise is worth more than the fee. Ask the agent about it in writing.
The natural hazards row in that table carries more weight than it used to — since 2025, councils must set it out under specified headings. See what a LIM must now disclose about natural hazards for what changed and what it still won’t tell you.
Official sources
- settled.govt.nz — LIM reports
- Your local council’s LIM page — search “[your council] LIM report”
Information only — not financial or legal advice. Always confirm with your own lawyer and a licensed adviser.
Common questions
How long does a LIM report take in New Zealand?
Councils must supply a LIM within 10 working days of receiving the request and the fee. Most take the full 10. Many councils offer an urgent service for an extra fee that cuts it to around 3 working days. Always count in working days, not calendar days, and remember public holidays push the date out.
How much does a LIM report cost?
Standard residential LIMs generally run between about $300 and $500 depending on the council, with urgent processing costing more. Fees are set by each territorial authority and published on its website, so check your specific council rather than relying on a national average.
Who pays for the LIM — the buyer or the seller?
Usually the buyer, as part of their due diligence during the conditional period. Sometimes a seller orders one before listing and makes it available to all interested buyers. If you're given a seller's LIM, check its date — an old LIM won't show anything that has happened since.
Is a LIM the same as a builder's report?
No, and you generally want both. A LIM is a paper record of what the council knows about the property. A builder's report is a physical inspection of the building itself. A LIM can tell you a deck was never consented; only an inspection tells you whether it is currently rotting.