How to Choose a Landscaper in New Zealand

How to Choose a Landscaper in New Zealand

Landscaping and gardening get lumped together, and they are not the same job. Gardening is maintenance — mowing, hedging, weeding, keeping what exists alive. Landscaping is design plus construction: paving, retaining walls, decks, steps, planting plans, irrigation and lighting. A landscaper builds the outdoor environment. A gardener looks after it once it is built.

That distinction matters because the two halves of landscaping sit under completely different rules. The design side is unregulated — there is no landscaper's licence, no register, no protected title. But part of the build is building work, and building work has hard consent thresholds. A retaining wall is where homeowners get caught, because a wall that is fine at 1.4 metres becomes a consenting problem at 1.6, or the moment a vehicle drives over it.

So the useful skill here is not finding the cheapest quote. It is knowing which parts of your project need a consent, who is responsible for getting it, and how to tell whether the person quoting can actually build what they have drawn.

How We Researched This Guide

We worked from the Building Act 2004 rather than from trade marketing. The retaining wall exemption is Schedule 1 clause 20, and the wording is narrow: exempt only if the wall retains no more than 1.5 metres of ground and supports no surcharge or additional load. Building Performance's own guidance gives the example that catches people — a 1.2 metre wall under the height limit still needs consent if a neighbour's vehicle driveway surcharges it.

We also checked the Electricity (Hazards from Trees) Regulations 2003, because landscapers prune and remove trees and that is a separate regulated layer most quotes ignore. The consumer rights material comes from the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and the Fair Trading Act 1986, both set out in full on legislation.govt.nz. What surprised us was how few landscaping quotes mention consent at all.

The Quick Summary (60-Second Version)

If you read nothing else, read this.

• Landscaping is not licensed. Nobody can show you a landscaper's licence, because it does not exist. Check evidence instead.
• A retaining wall over 1.5 metres needs building consent — and so does a shorter one carrying a vehicle load or sloping ground.
• Exempt building work still has to comply with the Building Code, and the owner is responsible for that under section 14B.
• Ask what allowance sits inside the quote for what is underground. That is where budgets go.
• Confirm who lodges any consent: you or them, and in whose name.
• Have underground cables and pipes located before anyone digs. This is not optional.

Where the Consent Line Actually Sits

This is the part of landscaping that has real legal teeth, and it is the part most quotes skate past. Schedule 1 of the Building Act 2004 exempts a retaining wall that retains no more than 1.5 metres depth of ground and does not support any surcharge or load additional to the ground itself. The moment there is a vehicle driveway, a parking space, a pool, a building or sloping ground above the wall, the exemption is gone.

Where a wall ranges in height — say 900 mm at one end and 1.8 metres at the other — only the portion above 1.5 metres requires consent. Rural zones get a wider exemption: clause 41 allows up to 3 metres depth of ground, provided the wall is at least its own height from any boundary or existing building and the design is carried out or reviewed by a Chartered Professional Engineer.

Exempt Does Not Mean Unregulated

Section 17 of the Building Act requires all building work to comply with the Building Code, and section 14B puts responsibility for that on the owner — whether or not the work was exempt from consent. A landscaper who says "you don't need a consent for that" may be right about the consent and wrong about everything else. Ask how the wall is designed and who checked it.

Other common triggers: fences or walls higher than 2.5 metres, all swimming pools and their associated fences, decks more than 1.5 metres above ground, and sheds greater than 30 square metres in floor area. Sheds between 10 and 30 square metres still need an LBP or an engineer, or lightweight materials per the acceptable solution.

The Layers Nobody Quotes For

Trees near overhead lines fall under the Electricity (Hazards from Trees) Regulations 2003. Once a lines owner knows a tree is encroaching the growth limit zone they must issue a written cut or trim notice, the tree owner has a set time to act, and work inside the zone may only be done by the lines company or an approved contractor. Non-compliance carries fines. Protected trees under your district plan are a separate consent question again.

What Good Looks Like, and What to Ask

A good landscaper asks about drainage and levels before they talk about design, because water is what ruins landscapes. They tell you which parts of the work need consent before quoting, not after. They arrange for underground services to be located before anyone puts a spade in the ground. And they give you a plan you can read, with a planting schedule and costs broken down by area.

The quote itself is where most of the risk sits. A quote is a fixed price for defined work; an estimate is an approximation and can legitimately be exceeded. Ask which one you are getting. Then ask what allowance is built in for what is under the ground — because a quote given without any excavation has a number inside it that nobody has explained to you.

Questions Worth Asking Before You Sign

Which parts of this need a building consent, and who is applying for it? What is the retaining wall retaining, and is there any surcharge? Have you checked for underground cables and pipes? Are any trees protected under the district plan, and is any tree work near power lines? Who does the hard landscaping and who does the planting — you, or subcontractors?

Then the commercial ones. What is the programme of works, and how long will the section be unusable? Where does the spoil and green waste go? What is the payment schedule, and is any of it held back until completion? What is the warranty on the hard landscaping and on the plants? And what is the maintenance regime, because a planting scheme with no maintenance plan becomes a weed patch.

Credentials When There Is No Licence

Because there is no register to check, the substitutes are membership of a professional body that requires a qualification, a company registration number, evidence of public liability insurance, references from recent local jobs, and a written contract. Ask for two or three recent jobs and actually ring those customers. Ask specifically whether the final price matched the quote and whether anything had to be redone.

Photograph the condition of the area before work starts. It is free, it takes two minutes, and it removes an entire class of argument about pre-existing damage.

Questions You Might Have

Do I need a building consent for a retaining wall?

Not if it retains 1.5 metres of ground or less and carries no surcharge or additional load. If a vehicle drives over or near it, or there is sloping ground above it, consent is required regardless of height. Where a wall varies in height, only the part above 1.5 metres needs consent.

Is landscaping a licensed trade in New Zealand?

No. There is no landscaper's licence, no register and no protected title. That does not mean there is no law — the Building Act governs the structural work, the Consumer Guarantees Act requires reasonable care and skill, and the Fair Trading Act covers what a landscaper claims about their qualifications.

What if the landscaper damages my property?

Under the Consumer Guarantees Act, a trader must pay for damage their work causes to your belongings or property. Give them the chance to put it right first. If you get it fixed elsewhere without telling them, you lose the right to recover that repair bill.

Can I do the landscaping myself?

You can, and you are then the owner responsible for Building Code compliance under section 14B — including for exempt work. For anything structural, or anything near services, the engineering and the locating are worth paying for. The consenting risk sits with you either way.

How do I compare two quotes fairly?

Compare scope, not just price. Two quotes at the same number are not comparable if one excludes spoil removal, planting, GST or consent fees. Write one scope and send the same scope to everyone, then compare what each one says is included and excluded.

What Matters Most

The design half of landscaping is unregulated and always will be. That is not a scandal — it just means the checks you would normally do on a licensed trade have to be replaced with something else: references you actually ring, insurance you actually see, and a written contract with a variation process in it.

The build half is a different story. Retaining walls, decks, fences, pools and earthworks sit under the Building Act, and the consent thresholds are specific. Get that wrong and it surfaces at sale, years later, when you least want to deal with it. Ask the consent question on the first phone call and watch how the answer comes back.

And ask what is underground. It is the single question that separates a landscaper who has done this before from one who is about to find out.