Agencies that can recover costs
Agencies able to recover costs include the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), the Ministry for the Environment, relevant local authorities, and relevant administering agencies for the Acts under which approvals would usually be consented.
Cost recovery – Fast-track Approvals Act 2024 – New Zealand Legislation
The EPA recovers costs directly related to the application from the application fee on behalf of the agencies involved.
Costs agencies can recover
Costs recovered through the EPA may be based on time spent, external advice procured, or other costs incurred in performing your duties and functions in relation to an application once it has been lodged.
These include:
commissioning advice or services needed to process an application
undertaking consultation
responding to an invitation to comment on an application
undertaking these activities to enable others (for example, panel conveners) to exercise their powers or perform their duties and functions under the Act
preparing advice in preparation for performing duties or helping others perform their duties
preparing for and appearing at hearings held by an expert panel.
Costs must be actual and reasonable
The procedural principles in section 10 of the Act require agencies to take all practicable steps to use timely, efficient, consistent and cost-effective processes that are proportionate to the functions, duties or powers being performed or exercised.
The EPA will review costs and may query them before passing them on to applicants.
The EPA does not recover costs relating to pre-application consultation
You must agree and organise directly with the applicant any recovery of costs for consulting and providing assistance to them before the application is lodged.
Fast-track cost recovery does not apply to monitoring and enforcement of approvals
Approvals granted are monitored and enforced under the relevant provisions in the specified Act relating to the approval, for example the Resource Management Act 1991. Any costs associated with monitoring and enforcement of conditions should be arranged directly with the approval holder.
Setting rates
Local authorities are able to set their own charging rates for work done by internal staff during the Fast-track process, subject to costs being actual and reasonable. It is good practice to publish these rates on your website, to provide transparency to potential Fast-track applicants. Administering agencies must publish their rates on their website.
Working days
The Fast-track Approvals Act 2024 takes its definition of ‘working day’ from the Resource Management Act 1991, which excludes weekends, national holidays (or their observed day), and the days from 20 December to 10 January. These excluded days don’t count as a statutory working day for the purposes of the Fast-track ‘processing clock’. However, cost-recoverable work can still be done during this time.
How to recover costs
Cost recovery is handled through the Fast-track Cost Recovery System (CRS).
Onboarding for cost recovery
The first time your agency is asked to work on a Fast-track application, we will send you a new supplier form if required, and a questionnaire to collect details of how you want to use the CRS.
Complete and return these forms as soon as possible so we can set you up for cost recovery.
Using the Cost Recovery System (CRS)
Agencies use the CRS to submit their time and expense invoices to the EPA. The CRS is a flexible, Oracle-based online system that integrates directly with the EPA’s financial systems and supports multiple modes of use.
You can opt to use the CRS as either a ‘one-stop shop’ to record, approve and invoice time and expenses for one or more users, or as a simple way to import data and invoices from your own systems using a prescribed template.
Agencies will also be asked to nominate a system administrator who will maintain their agency’s user details in the CRS.
CRS users should read this general guide to cost recovery in the CRS.
Guide: How to get started with the Fast-track CRS (PDF, 127 KB)
Invoices and payments
Submitting costs and invoices
To recover costs, please submit your time and expense invoices to the EPA at least once a month to ensure we can advise applicants of the costs against their application in a timely way.
Transactions are provided to applicants at a summarised level on a monthly invoice. We will let you know if an applicant disputes a transaction or the full invoice, and payment for these charges will be put on hold. We may require further information from you to assess the dispute.
Invoice payment terms and timing
The EPA will make payments to you on a quarterly basis. Each payment will include costs that were invoiced 90 days before and are not being disputed. Please update your invoice payment terms for Fast-track invoices to reflect that invoices are paid quarterly. Payment terms for CRS-generated Buyer Created Tax Invoices are automatically set to 90 days.
Send statements and payment reminders to finance@epa.govt.nz .
Submitting final costs
When an application is returned or withdrawn, you must submit any final costs as soon as possible, and before the next month end, to enable swift refunds to applicants. Late submissions could limit the EPA’s ability to recover any further costs on behalf of your agency.
We will advise you when a panel decision has been reached to approve or decline an application. In these cases, you will have two months to submit any final costs.
Costs incurred after the decision date are not recoverable from the application fee, except for support provided for minor corrections. You will need to invoice the applicant directly to recover any other costs incurred after the decision date.
Managing disputes
If an applicant wishes to dispute any costs, the EPA will manage the dispute. Agencies whose costs are disputed will need to contribute to this process.
This applies only to costs incurred during the referral, land exchange and substantive application stages, not pre-application or post-decision costs, which you will manage directly with the applicant.
If a dispute cannot be satisfactorily resolved, the matter may be escalated through a legal process. Any costs associated with resolving a dispute cannot be recovered from the application fee.