Me pēwhea e tautohe ai i ngā whakarōpūtanga me ngā whakataunga hoko Disputing categorisation and buy-out decisions

You can no longer dispute the risk category given to your property.  

Last updated: 22 August 2025

Property owners can dispute:

• the market valuation (as at 26 January 2023) to be used in the buy-out offer
• the outcome of an application made under the special circumstances provision
• the outcome of a decision relating to the individual circumstance of an uninsured homeowner.

You have one month after receiving the market valuation for your property to dispute the valuation.

If you need to raise a valuation dispute, you can discuss this with your property advisor who will contact you to discuss your Category 3 property buy-out once you are at that stage of the process.

We complete an internal technical review about the decision and provide a response as soon as possible.

If you are unhappy with the outcome of the internal technical review, we will try to resolve the matter with a 'without prejudice' meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to help homeowners and experts understand the disagreement better.

Homeowners have one month to request this meeting after receiving the decision of the internal technical review. Any statements made during this meeting cannot be used later against the person that made them.

This meeting is usually between the homeowner’s technical experts and the council's technical experts, but may involve others.

If the dispute cannot be resolved at the 'without prejudice meeting', homeowners can request a further external review by an independent expert. They must request the review within 25 working days after getting the outcome of the ‘without prejudice’ meeting.

The decision made at the independent review is final.

Download the guide to disputing Recovery Office decisions to find out more.

If you are unhappy with the market valuation (as at 26 January 2023) you have the opportunity to provide another valuation from an Auckland Council-appointed registered valuer to consider.

If we decline to revise the valuation, you have one month to apply to have the valuation dispute determined by an independent valuer of your choosing from the council’s panel of experts (subject to availability). That independent decision is final.

We know that everyone has very different situations, so property owners are able to apply to have their special circumstances considered. In exceptional cases, the council may need to depart from the buy-out policy positions where departure in an individual case is consistent with the council’s policy objectives.

It is important to note that financial hardship is not a factor that will be considered in determining whether special circumstances apply.

Read about the application process in the guidance document. You can use the form to make a special circumstances application at any stage in the process.

You can apply for Auckland Council to consider your individual circumstances. We may consider reducing your uninsured homeowner contribution (of 20 per cent) to the same level as for insured homes (of 5 per cent).

Situations where we may consider reducing your contribution include where:

• there was little or no insurable loss suffered as a result of the events
• you were unable to obtain insurance at the time of the events due to previous severe weather events (but can demonstrate a relevant history of paying house insurance premiums)
• you were uninsured at the date of the events but can demonstrate a relevant history of payment of house insurance premiums.

Read more about the application process in the guidance document. Use the form to make an Individual Circumstances application.

Decisions on individual and special circumstances are at the council's discretion.

We have a dispute resolution framework for homeowners who wish to dispute certain decisions made by Auckland Council relating to their property.

This framework provides dispute options for the following decisions:

• The categorisation of the property as category 1, 2C, 2P or 3 (categorisation decision).
• The reference valuation contained within the council’s offer to buy a property (valuation decision).
• The outcome of an application made under the special circumstances category (special circumstances decision).
• The outcome of decisions relating to insurance proceeds, including Earthquake Commission proceeds or the outcome of a decision relating to the individual circumstances of an uninsured homeowner (insurance decision).

The dispute resolution process cannot be used to challenge the design or content of the voluntary buy-out support scheme.

Read the full dispute resolution framework in the Category 3 Homeowner handbook. We will give you a copy of this handbook when we confirm your Category 3 status.