With the flurry of summer real estate activity, Invercargill City Council is reminding people to factor in enough time when requesting property files as the holiday season approaches.

The Local Government Official Information and Meeting Act (LGOIMA) stipulates there must be a pause of the statutory clock over the holiday break, between 20 December and 10 January.

Council Building and Planning Services Manager Anne Duncan said to guarantee people requesting property files received them before Council closed for the holidays, they needed to do so by 18 December.

While the team would do its best to process file requests following these deadlines, it could not guarantee they would be processed before the holiday period, she said.

Requests for both Land Information Memorandums (LIMs) and Property Files had continued to trend upwards in 2024.

“In October last year, we received just 46 requests for LIMs and 378 for Property Files – but in the same period this year, we received 70 and 514 requests, respectively. It’s a significant growth in volume,” she said.

“With both the property market coming into its traditionally busy season, and the Christmas and New Year period rolling around, we’d like to remind people to put their file requests into Council as soon as they can.”

Invercargill City Council would close at midday on 24 December and reopen on 6 January, 2025.