Quick answer
A granny flat built under New Zealand's building consent exemption must have its own independent point of supply for electricity, so the kitchen draws on a supply sized for that dwelling alone rather than borrowing headroom from the main house. Since the exemption commenced on 15 January 2026, an electrical worker doing prescribed electrical work on a non-consented small stand-alone dwelling must give both the Certificate of Compliance and the Electrical Safety Certificate to the person who contracted the work and to the owner of the dwelling. No council inspection and no code compliance certificate are issued for these builds, so those certificates are the compliance record. Settle your induction, oven and boiling tap against a maximum demand calculation before you order, and file the completion pack with the council within 20 working days.
Key points
- The granny flats exemption commenced on 15 January 2026 and allows one new, detached, single-storey, self-contained dwelling of 70 square metres or less to be built without a building consent, provided every condition is met.
- MBIE's guidance states the granny flat must have independent points of supply for electricity and gas where applicable, so the kitchen load cannot lean on the main house switchboard.
- Electrical workers doing prescribed electrical work on a non-consented small stand-alone dwelling must now give the Certificate of Compliance and the Electrical Safety Certificate to the contracting party and to the owner, and the usual timeframes have not changed.
- Councils do not inspect these builds and do not issue a code compliance certificate, so the pack you file within 20 working days of completion becomes the property file record a future buyer, lender or insurer will read.
- A 600mm induction cooktop can be rated anywhere from about 20 amps to 32 amps depending on the model, which makes cooktop choice an electrical decision before it is a styling one.
The cooktop decides the supply, not the boiling tap.
A homeowner in Papakura rings in autumn with a 62 square metre granny flat going up behind the main house. Slab down, PIM in the drawer, framing booked. The kitchen is a 3.6 metre run with a short return, and she has already settled the cooktop, a top-of-range 600mm induction with bridging zones, because it looked right on the display stand in Botany. Her electrical worker reads the drawing, looks at the supply he has been asked to run to the new dwelling, and asks the question nobody has asked yet: what else is going on that supply, and who pays for the upgrade if it will not carry the lot?
That question is this whole article. The kitchen is the densest pile of electrical load in the building, the exemption's conditions are strict, the owner carries the liability, and the usual safety net, a council inspector turning up and eventually issuing a code compliance certificate, is not there. What follows is the electrical side of specifying one of these kitchens: what the exemption requires of the supply, how appliance choices stack against it, and which pieces of paper must be in your hand at handover. It is not a wiring design and it is not legal advice. Confirm every detail with your electrical worker, your LBP and your council before you order anything.
What the exemption actually says about power
The granny flats building consent exemption commenced on 15 January 2026. It lets you build one new, detached, single-storey, self-contained dwelling of 70 square metres or less without a building consent, as long as every condition is met, the work is carried out or supervised by licensed building professionals, and you have a Project Information Memorandum from the council before anything starts. The resource consent side runs on a separate national environmental standard, and MBIE's guidance is explicit that the two can operate independently. Meeting one does not mean you have met the other. Check both.
Buried in the conditions is the line that governs your kitchen. MBIE's guidance states that the granny flat must have independent points of supply for electricity and gas where applicable, and that heaters must be electric or gas heaters if installed. Put a solid fuel heater in and you have lost the exemption, because that needs a building consent. There is a second condition worth knowing before you settle a hot water solution: there must be no uncontrolled water heating, which rules out wetbacks and similar uncontrolled heat sources feeding the cylinder.
What the guidance does not do is spell out the network arrangement behind the phrase “independent points of supply”, whether that lands as a separate connection and meter from the lines company or something else on your particular site. Do not guess at that, and do not let a designer guess at it either. Get your electrical worker talking to the lines company and your retailer early, because the answer changes the programme and it changes the cost. It is also exactly the sort of item that surfaces late and expensive if you leave it until the cabinets are on site.
Independent means the granny flat carries its own load
Here is the practical consequence. On a normal kitchen renovation in a Mount Roskill bungalow, the existing switchboard is the starting point. You are working out whether the board has spare ways and whether the main is fat enough for one more circuit. On a granny flat under this exemption there is no borrowed headroom. The new dwelling stands on its own supply, and everything in it, the cooktop, the oven, the hot water, the heat pump, the tap, sits inside that one number.
Sizing that number is your electrical worker's job, not your designer's. The Electricity (Safety) Regulations 2010 provide for installations to be designed and installed under AS/NZS 3000, the wiring rules, and those rules carry the maximum demand calculation that turns a list of appliances into a supply size. The calculation applies diversity, meaning it assumes you are not running everything flat out at once, which is why a kitchen full of big-ticket appliances does not simply add up to a terrifying total. Diversity is not magic, though, and it will not rescue a spec that dropped a 32 amp cooktop onto a supply nobody sized for it.
This is why the appliance conversation has to happen earlier on a granny flat than it does on a renovation. On a standard job you can often keep choosing appliances while the cabinets are being made. Here, the appliance schedule feeds the load calculation, the load calculation feeds the supply, and the supply feeds a conversation with a network operator that runs on its own timetable. Getting the electrician, the plumber and the installer in the right order matters on every kitchen. On this one it decides whether the job lands on programme at all.
| Appliance | Typical rated current | Why it matters | Ask for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Induction cooktop, 600mm, high output | Around 32 A | The biggest single kitchen load, and the one that most often forces a bigger supply | Rated current for the exact model code |
| Induction cooktop, 600mm, low current | Around 20 A | Same footprint, materially smaller circuit; often the sensible granny flat choice | Written confirmation it suits the intended wiring |
| Wall oven, single 600mm | Varies widely by model | Usually modest next to the cooktop, but it is another dedicated circuit | Rating plate figures, not brochure copy |
| Boiling water tap | Commonly a 10 A supply | Typically around 1.7 to 2.3 kW; smaller than its reputation suggests | The model-specific spec sheet, because the range is real |
| Dishwasher, rangehood, fridge, lighting | Small individually | They add up, and the diversity in the calculation is not unlimited | A complete appliance schedule before sizing |
The cooktop is the decision, not the boiling tap
Boiling taps get blamed for load problems they do not cause. A residential boiling water tap typically draws somewhere in the region of 1.7 to 2.3 kW at 230 volts and is commonly fed from a standard 10 amp supply. Check the model, because the range is real and the bigger commercial units are different animals. That is a meaningful load, but it is not the one that reshapes your supply.
The cooktop is. The spread inside a single brand's 600mm range makes the point better than any general rule could. Fisher & Paykel's New Zealand line-up includes a 60cm four-zone induction cooktop rated 20 amps and 4.5 kW that the company explicitly markets as a low current option, suited to replacing gas or ceramic models using existing wiring, with the sensible caveat that specific electrical situations vary and you should consult a licensed electrician. Move up the same 600mm footprint to a Series 9 four-zone induction with SmartZones and the rated current is 32 amps. Same width, same hole in the benchtop, materially different circuit.
That is the whole granny flat appliance argument in one line. Nothing about the cabinetry changes between those two cooktops and the benchtop cut-out barely moves, but on a dwelling whose entire supply was sized around an appliance schedule they are not interchangeable. Swapping one for the other after the supply is set is a variation with a long tail.
Add a wall oven and the argument sharpens. Oven plus cooktop is what most people mean when they say they want a proper kitchen in the granny flat, and it is a defensible spec: a 70 square metre dwelling that will be rented or lived in long term deserves better than a benchtop oven and two induction rings. Just make the decision once, early, with the rating plates in front of you. Making a small kitchen feel bigger is mostly a layout and finish problem. Making it work electrically is arithmetic, and arithmetic done late costs money.
The certificates changed when the exemption did
This is the part homeowners find out about too late, and it is worth reading closely even if wiring bores you rigid. Normally a Certificate of Compliance and an Electrical Safety Certificate go to the person who contracted the work. The owner or occupier receives them where the contracting person cannot be contacted, or if they ask for them. That is the default, and on a busy site it means the certificates land with the builder or the project manager and the owner may never handle them at all.
The Electricity (Safety) Regulations 2010 were amended alongside the exemption. The Electrical Workers Registration Board's position is plain: where prescribed electrical work is carried out on a non-consented small stand-alone dwelling, the electrical worker must provide the Certificate of Compliance and the Electrical Safety Certificate to the person who contracted the work, if that person is readily available, and to the owner of the dwelling. Two recipients, not one. The usual timeframes for providing them have not changed.
Why does that matter enough to legislate? Because councils do not inspect granny flats built under the exemption, do not issue approvals, and do not issue a code compliance certificate. There is no CCC. The documentation you collect is the entire compliance record, and you must submit it to the council within 20 working days of completion: final design plans, Records of Work, Certificates of Work, and the electrical and gas safety certificates. Development contributions are payable in the same window, and they have not gone away. Councils have no duty to assess what you send; they store it, and it forms part of the land information memorandum. That property file is what a buyer's lawyer, a lender and an insurer will read in ten years' time.
| Document | Issued by | Who must receive it | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certificate of Compliance (CoC) | The electrical worker who did the prescribed electrical work | The contracting party if readily available, and the owner of the dwelling | Records that the prescribed electrical work complies; forms part of the completion pack |
| Electrical Safety Certificate (ESC) | The electrical worker or inspector | The contracting party if readily available, and the owner of the dwelling | Certifies the installation is safe to connect and use |
| Record of Work (RoW) | Each LBP, plus registered plumbers and drainlayers | The homeowner and the territorial authority that issued the PIM | Shows who carried out the restricted building work |
| Certificate of Work (CoW) | The LBP designer, for restricted design work | The homeowner, for the completion pack | Shows the design was done by someone licensed to do it |
| The completion pack | Compiled by the owner | The council, within 20 working days of completion | There is no CCC, so this becomes the property file and LIM record |
On a consented job the inspector finds it. Out here, if the paperwork isn't in your hand the day the sparky drives away, it's gone.
No CCC is coming. The certificates are the record.
Ventilation is the other Building Code clause in your kitchen
The exemption removes the building consent. It does not remove the Building Code. MBIE's guidance is explicit that the granny flat must comply with all Building Code requirements applying to a detached dwelling, and the clauses it lists include G3 for food preparation, G4 for ventilation and H1 for energy efficiency. Your kitchen sits squarely on two of those, and the one that bites is extraction.
A recirculating rangehood is cheap, needs no penetration and no ducting run, and it is the default in every value-engineered small dwelling in Auckland. On its own it is not always sufficient. If the granny flat is going to be rented, the Healthy Homes ventilation requirements are a separate obligation that arrives with the tenancy rather than with the build, and they are not satisfied by good intentions. Deciding on ducted extraction rather than a recirculating unit is far easier while the frame is open than after the cladding is on. If it is a rental, read what the Healthy Homes standards ask of a kitchen before you sign the spec off.
Induction shifts this conversation slightly, and people over-read the shift. Induction produces no combustion products, so you are extracting steam, grease and cooking odour rather than flue gases. That is a genuinely lower duty than gas. It is not zero. In a 70 square metre single-storey dwelling where the kitchen, living and sleeping spaces share air, a hood that recirculates grease-laden steam back into the room is a decision you will smell every evening.
What goes wrong
The appliance schedule arrives after the supply is set. Someone decides in week nine that the 32 amp cooktop looks better than the 20 amp one. The supply was sized in week three. Now there is a variation touching the switchboard, the circuit and possibly the connection itself. This is the most common version of the problem and it is entirely avoidable by settling appliances before the electrical design.
The certificates go to the builder and stop there. The rule now says the owner gets a copy too, but rules do not enforce themselves. If your contract does not say the Certificate of Compliance and the Electrical Safety Certificate land with you before final payment, you are relying on somebody remembering an obligation on a Friday afternoon.
Nobody asks the lines company anything until it is urgent. An independent point of supply is not a same-week item. It runs on a network operator's timetable, not your builder's, and it is a classic critical path item that looks like admin right up until it is the only thing standing between you and handover.
The kitchen quote and the electrical scope never meet in the middle. Cabinetmakers supply and install cabinetry, benchtops and usually the appliance cut-outs. They do not run circuits or make final connections. If nobody has written down who does the final connection, who supplies the isolating switch and who owns the hood ducting, it becomes an argument on the day the truck arrives. That seam is where the hidden costs in a kitchen quote usually live.
The spec gets fancy in a dwelling that will be rented. A 70 square metre granny flat behind a Massey house going out at market rent does not need a boiling tap, a Series 9 cooktop and a full-height integrated fridge. Putting them in is money you will never see again at the rent review, and every one of them is another load, another warranty and another callback. Spend it on the extraction and the durable surfaces instead.
The mezzanine kills the exemption. Not an electrical point, but it lands in the same conversation often enough to repeat: a part-storey or mezzanine floor means the building is no longer single-storey, and the exemption is gone. The 70 square metre limit tempts people to build up. Do not.
What to ask before you sign
- Who is arranging the independent point of supply, and has the network operator confirmed a timeframe in writing?
- What are the exact model codes for the cooktop, oven, hot water and any boiling tap, and has the electrical worker seen the rated current for each one?
- Has a maximum demand calculation been done, and what supply size did it land on?
- Does the contract say the Certificate of Compliance and the Electrical Safety Certificate come to me, the owner, before final payment?
- Who supplies and who connects each appliance, cabinetmaker, electrician or appliance supplier, and is that split written down anywhere?
- Is the rangehood ducted or recirculating, and if the flat will be tenanted, does the extraction satisfy Healthy Homes?
- Who is compiling the completion pack for the council, and who is actually sending it inside 20 working days?
- Are the development contributions budgeted, and does everyone know they fall due in that same window?
Frequently asked questions
Does a granny flat need its own power meter?
The exemption condition, as stated in MBIE's guidance, is that the granny flat must have independent points of supply for electricity and gas where applicable. The guidance does not spell out the network arrangement behind that phrase, and how it lands on your particular site is a question for your electrical worker and your lines company. Ask them before the design is locked rather than after, and get the answer in writing, because it affects both your programme and your cost.
Who has to give me the electrical certificates for a granny flat?
Where prescribed electrical work is carried out on a non-consented small stand-alone dwelling, the electrical worker must provide the Certificate of Compliance and the Electrical Safety Certificate to the person who contracted the work, if that person is readily available, and to the owner of the dwelling. That differs from the general rule, under which the certificates go to the contracting party and the owner only receives them on request or where the contracting party cannot be contacted. The usual timeframes for issuing them have not changed. If you are the owner, copies should reach you as a matter of course.
Will an induction cooktop, a wall oven and a boiling tap all fit on a granny flat supply?
Usually yes, but that is a calculation rather than an assumption. Your electrical worker sizes the supply using the maximum demand method in AS/NZS 3000, the wiring rules that the Electricity (Safety) Regulations 2010 provide for, and the method applies diversity because you will not run everything at once. The variable that moves the answer most is the cooktop, since 600mm induction models from a single brand range from around 20 amps to 32 amps. Give your electrical worker the exact model codes before the supply is designed, not after.
Do I get a code compliance certificate for a granny flat built under the exemption?
No. Because no building consent is issued, councils do not carry out inspections, issue approvals or issue a code compliance certificate. Instead you submit documentation to the council within 20 working days of completion: final design plans, Records of Work, Certificates of Work, and the electrical and gas safety certificates. The council stores those records without any duty to assess them, and they form part of the property file and the land information memorandum, which is what a future buyer, lender or insurer will look at.
Can I do the electrical work myself to save money?
Only in narrow circumstances, and it is rarely the bargain it looks like. MBIE's guidance notes that homeowners intending to live in their granny flat may use the domestic exemption under section 79 of the Electricity Act 1992 to do certain electrical work during construction, and that all such work must be inspected by a licensed electrical inspector for compliance. If you are building the flat to rent out, that pathway is not open to you. Given that the owner carries liability for compliance and there is no council inspection to fall back on, most people are better off with a registered electrical worker and a clean certificate pack.
Getting a trade-priced number for the kitchen
MTN Kitchens & Maintenance has manufactured in East Tamaki for 23 years and has turned out more than 2,000 kitchens, currently ten-plus a week. We supply and install under one contract and one invoice, which on a granny flat matters more than usual, because it removes one of the seams where responsibility gets dropped between trades. There is no showroom and no showroom margin, so the pricing is trade pricing, and a single kitchen installs over five to seven days. We are Site Safe qualified, and head contractors put kitchen work through us.
Send the scope. The granny flat's floor plan, or even a rough sketch with the run lengths on it, plus your appliance schedule with the model codes written down, and you will have a trade-priced number back inside 24 hours, plus GST. Drawings sharpen it, but we can price off a rough scope. Entry grade sits in the lower five figures, mid-range climbs comfortably into the mid five figures, and premium goes well past that; if you want the bands before you ring, what a kitchen costs in Auckland right now breaks them down. And if you are still choosing appliances, send the shortlist with them. On a granny flat it is a load conversation before it is a style one, and it is a great deal cheaper to have that conversation now than in week nine.