Two ways a rural pole shed can be exempt
Most building work in New Zealand needs a building consent. Section 42A of the Building Act 2004 is the section that says when work described in Schedule 1 does not. For a pole shed or hay barn, two clauses are the ones LBP builders usually need to tell apart.
Clause 4A: an LBP carries out or supervises the work
Clause 4A sits in Part 1 of Schedule 1. MBIE explains it in guidance 2.7, single-storey pole sheds and hay barns — Licensed Building Practitioner. The clause says any design or construction work is carried out or supervised by a licensed building practitioner. MBIE’s practical wording is that the owner engages an LBP to design, build and/or supervise, and that the building work is carried out in accordance with the design.
Design is best done by an LBP with a design licence. Construction is best done by an LBP in a class that matches the work: bricklaying and blocklaying, carpentry, external plastering, foundations or roofing. If an LBP is supervising, MBIE says that supervision must align with the supervision practice note on lbp.govt.nz. Check the public register before you rely on someone’s licence. There is no restriction on materials, but get further advice if the method is outside the LBP’s competence.
Clause 49: a Chartered Professional Engineer designs or reviews it
Clause 49 sits in Part 3 of Schedule 1, the part for building work whose design is carried out or reviewed by a Chartered Professional Engineer. Because it is in Part 3, section 42A(1)(c) adds a condition the clause text does not repeat: a Chartered Professional Engineer must have carried out or reviewed the design, and the building work must be carried out in accordance with that design. MBIE’s guidance 2.6 says the same thing, and says it is best to use a structural engineer.
Some suppliers sell a pre-engineered kitset with a Chartered Professional Engineer’s sign-off. MBIE notes you may still need an LBP to erect it to that engineer’s specification. A kitset does not skip the other limits below.
These are separate exemptions. You use the one that matches who is taking responsibility for the design and the build. Both are only for a pole shed or hay barn, and both have the same size, height, span, use and wind limits. A general workshop, a commercial building, or a shed the public can walk into is a different question.
The limits that have to be met
Every item below comes from clauses 4A and 49. MBIE’s notes for exemptions 2.6 and 2.7 explain how to apply them. Miss one, and that exemption does not apply.
- Rural zone only. In Schedule 1, a rural zone is a zone or area in the district plan described as a rural zone, rural resource area, rural environment, or similar words. A rural residential area is not included. Check the plan name for the site. Do not assume a lifestyle block qualifies because it feels rural.
- Single storey. The floor level is no more than 1 metre above the supporting ground, and the height is no more than 4 metres above the floor level.
- Floor area. The building does not exceed 110 square metres in floor area. MBIE measures that as net floor area, to the inside of the enclosing walls or posts.
- Roof span. The maximum unsupported roof span, in any direction, does not exceed 6 metres.
- No public access. The building is not accessible by the public.
- No hazardous-substance storage. It is not used to store hazardous substances within the meaning of regulation 4 of the Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017. Agrichemicals and solvents that meet that definition are outside the exemption. MBIE says so directly.
- Wind, one of two tests. Either the design wind speeds do not exceed 44 metres per second, calculated using Verification Method B1/VM1, or the building is in a wind zone no greater than high, as defined in Acceptable Solution B1/AS1. It is an either/or. An extra-high zone fails the wind-zone option. MBIE says that if the council has no wind maps, you must get professional advice. Do not take the zone from the nearest town. MBIE points to NZS 3604:2011 and AS/NZS 1170.2:2011, which are referenced by B1/VM1 and B1/AS1.
- Distance to houses, roads and boundaries. The exemption does not cover a building closer than the measure of its own height to any residential building, public road, railway, or legal boundary. A 4 metre high shed needs to be more than 4 metres clear. This is the Schedule 1 distance. The district plan may want more.
MBIE describes these pole sheds and hay barns as enclosed, semi-enclosed or open buildings used for farming: livestock, equipment, fodder and grain are the usual examples. They are expected to be importance level 1 under clause A3 of the Building Code. If the use is something else, do not assume clause 4A or 49 is available.
Smaller detached buildings
A small implement shed, garage or sleepout is not automatically a “pole shed or hay barn”. Schedule 1 has separate exemptions for single-storey detached buildings. MBIE groups them in section 2 of the exempt-building-work guidance and in the notes for 2.1 to 2.5. The figures below are the current clause limits, including the boundary change made on 23 October 2025.
- Clause 3 — up to 10 square metres. Single storey: floor level up to 1 metre above the supporting ground, and height up to 3.5 metres above the floor. No sanitary facilities and no storage of potable water. No sleeping accommodation unless the building is used in connection with a dwelling and has no cooking facilities. The old “own height” setback in this clause was repealed on 23 October 2025. The Building Code, including fire, and the district plan still apply. MBIE says to think about fire resistance where a wall is closer than 1 metre to a boundary or a neighbouring property.
- Clause 3A — over 10 and up to 30 square metres, lightweight construction. Same height, sanitary, sleeping and cooking limits as clause 3. The walls and roof use lightweight building products, and the building is in accordance with Acceptable Solution B1/AS1 for timber or steel. Smoke alarms are required if anyone sleeps there. It must not be closer than 1 metre to any residential building or legal boundary. The clause does not itself require an LBP.
- Clause 3B — over 10 and up to 30 square metres, with an LBP. This is the small-building exemption where any design or construction work is carried out or supervised by an LBP. Same height and use limits, smoke alarms if there is sleeping accommodation, and not closer than 1 metre to any residential building or legal boundary. MBIE’s guidance 2.4 says design is best done by an LBP with a design licence or a registered architect, and construction by an LBP in the relevant class. If you are extending an existing building, MBIE says the total net floor area cannot exceed 30 square metres.
- Clause 43 — kitset or prefabricated, over 10 and up to 30 square metres. This one is in Part 3. The product manufacturer or supplier must have had the design carried out or reviewed by a Chartered Professional Engineer, and the building work must be carried out in accordance with that design. Same height, use and 1 metre distance limits, and smoke alarms if someone sleeps there. MBIE lists it with the other exemptions that depend on an engineer.
MBIE measures net floor area to the inside of the enclosing walls or posts. Buildings with plumbing, a bathroom or a kitchen cannot use these exemptions. A granny flat built under the separate small-standalone-dwelling exemption is not covered by clauses 3, 3A, 3B or 43. MBIE’s 2.4 page points to that other guidance.
Clauses 3A, 3B and 43 require smoke alarms where the building includes sleeping accommodation. MBIE’s notes for this whole group also say to install smoke alarms if the detached building will be used for sleeping, and that a sleepout alarm should be interconnected with the dwelling. Follow those notes as well as the clause you are using.
When you still need a building consent
You still need a building consent when the job does not fit every limit of the clause you are looking at. For a rural pole shed or hay barn, that includes any of these:
- It is more than one storey, the floor is more than 1 metre above the ground, or the height is more than 4 metres above the floor.
- The floor area is over 110 square metres.
- Any unsupported roof span is over 6 metres.
- The public can access it, or it will store hazardous substances of the kind the clause excludes.
- It fails both wind tests: design wind speed over 44 metres per second and a wind zone greater than high.
- It is closer than its own height to a house, a public road, a railway or a legal boundary.
- It is not in a rural zone as Schedule 1 defines that term, or it is not actually a pole shed or hay barn of the farming kind MBIE describes.
- For clause 4A, the design or construction is not carried out or supervised by an LBP in the way that clause and MBIE’s 2.7 page require. For clause 49, a Chartered Professional Engineer has not designed or reviewed it, or the build will not follow that design.
The same idea applies to the smaller detached-building clauses: over 30 square metres, over the 3.5 metre height, sanitary or cooking facilities, or closer than 1 metre where clauses 3A, 3B or 43 require that clearance, and the exemption is gone. Clause 3B also drops away if an LBP is not carrying out or supervising the design or construction.
There is a separate discretion in Schedule 1 clause 2. A council can decide a consent is not necessary because the completed work is likely to comply with the Building Code, or, if it does not, is unlikely to endanger people or any building. That is the council’s decision. It is not something the owner or the builder declares. If the job misses clause 4A or 49, talk to the council before anyone treats it as exempt.
A later change of use is its own problem. MBIE warns that exempt work may never appear on the council property file. The owner must not convert the shed to another use unless they notify the council under section 114 of the Building Act and the change meets section 115. Letting the public in later is a common way this goes wrong.
The Building Code still applies
An exemption removes the consent. It does not remove the Building Code. Section 17 says all building work must comply with the Building Code to the extent the Act requires, whether or not a consent is required. Section 42A(2) repeats that as a condition of every Schedule 1 exemption, and adds three more:
- If the building complied with the Building Code before the work, it must still comply afterwards. If it did not, it must not be left worse.
- The building work must not breach any other enactment. A district plan and a resource consent sit in that group. An exemption from a building consent is not an exemption from the Resource Management Act.
- The building must not be a hazardous substance location that has to be authorised under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 or regulations made under it. That sits on top of the storage ban already written into clauses 4A and 49.
Because there is no consent, there is also no consent inspection. The owner, the designer and the builder carry the compliance. MBIE’s pole-shed notes say to deal with stormwater from the roof, and that new drains must be laid by an authorised drainlayer. Durability under the Building Code still applies. If you are not sure the ground can support the foundations, get advice before the holes are drilled. That is as true on a Masterton dairy farm as it is on a section in Wellington or Manawatū.
Why engineering and a PS1 matter
Clause 49 is an engineering pathway by statute. Without a Chartered Professional Engineer designing or reviewing the shed, and without the build following that design, section 42A(1)(c) means the Part 3 exemption is not available.
Clause 4A can be an LBP design. The structure still has to meet the Building Code. Wind, span, portals and the ground are where a pole shed usually needs engineering, and those change from one farm to the next. A “high” wind zone on a council map is not a design. If the map is missing, MBIE says professional advice is required.
A Producer Statement PS1 is the engineer’s statement of the design. Schedule 1 does not say the words “PS1”, and a PS1 does not by itself create an exemption. What it does is record that a Chartered Professional Engineer has designed or reviewed the structure against the Building Code. That record matters twice. If the shed needs a consent, councils expect the engineering and commonly ask for a PS1 with the application. If the shed is exempt, MBIE notes the work may never be on the council file, so the plans and the PS1 are what the owner and the next builder have when someone asks how it was designed.
Where the use is beyond the importance level 1 farming shed MBIE describes, price a consented design instead of forcing the job into an exemption. ShedSpecs prepares consent-level plans and importance level 2 plans when the project needs them.
District plan and council checks
Do this before anyone orders steel. MBIE’s notes say to check the council for district-plan effects: site coverage, yards and setbacks, daylight access planes, and whether the shed is a permitted activity. A resource consent can still be required, and MBIE says to obtain it before building work starts. Section 42A makes the same point in statute: the work must not breach any other enactment.
The zone name is part of the building-consent question too. Clause 4A and clause 49 only apply in a rural zone as Schedule 1 defines it. Ask the council which plan zone the site is in, and whether a rural residential or similar zone has been excluded. While you are there, ask for the wind zone if they publish one, and for any property information that affects siting. A project information memorandum is useful when the council holds something the brief does not.
ShedSpecs is based in Masterton, so a lot of this checking is with Masterton District Council, Carterton District Council or South Wairarapa District Council. Masterton’s own building-consent guidance is the local starting point: most building work needs a consent, some Schedule 1 work does not, and the district plan is a separate check. The same split applies in Wellington, the Hutt Valley, Kāpiti, Manawatū, Horowhenua, Rangitīkei and Tararua. The council changes with the property. Our Wairarapa pole shed page covers the three Wairarapa districts, and the other service-area pages are linked in the footer.
How ShedSpecs helps
ShedSpecs prepares pole shed plans, engineering and trusses for Licensed Building Practitioners. The work is based in Masterton. Builders across the Wairarapa use that Masterton engineering pathway for local sheds, and the same plans, engineering and trusses are prepared for LBP builders elsewhere in New Zealand.
Structural engineering and the Producer Statement PS1 are provided by Infinity Consulting Engineers Limited, a separate professional services company. ShedSpecs manages the design workflow, supplies the trusses and rafters, and handles the document delivery. You shape the brief in the Pole Portal: dimensions, use, site and the decisions that decide whether clause 4A, clause 49, a smaller-building exemption, or a full consent is even in play.
The portal is free to join. You only pay when you order, and you will need your LBP number. Detailed plans with a PS1 are from $999 + GST, paid as a deposit and the balance. A preliminary pack — preliminary plans and a full material list — is from $99 + GST, and you can skip it. Turnaround is 2–4 days. Consent-level plans, IL2 (Importance Level 2) plans, and customisation of a design cost extra. We'll confirm the price before you commit.
Bring the site information with the brief: the legal description, the district-plan zone, the proposed position relative to houses, roads and boundaries, the wind information you already have, and what the shed is actually for. That is what lets the design match the exemption you think you have, or show that a consent is the honest path.
Official sources
Read these for the job in front of you. This page does not replace them.
- Building Act 2004, Schedule 1 — clauses 2, 3, 3A, 3B, 4A, 43 and 49, and the definition of rural zone.
- Section 42A — when Schedule 1 work does not need a consent, including the Chartered Professional Engineer condition for Part 3, and the conditions that apply to every exemption.
- Section 17 — building work must comply with the Building Code whether or not a consent is required.
- MBIE notes for single-storey pole sheds and hay barns (2.6 to 2.7) — district plan, wind, net floor area, and the distance to boundaries.
- MBIE guidance 2.6 — clause 49, Chartered Professional Engineer.
- MBIE guidance 2.7 — clause 4A, Licensed Building Practitioner.
- MBIE notes for single-storey detached buildings (2.1 to 2.5) and guidance 2.4 — the smaller-building exemptions, including clause 3B.
- MBIE: exemptions where an engineer designs or reviews the work.
- lbp.govt.nz — the public register and the supervision practice note.
- Masterton District Council building consents.