We are building atm. 50% build completed. We had our first consent failed by the council and lost $$ there as council part invoiced us for the work they did on the first consent which we had to pay if we wanted the second consent approved as we did not want to be on the wrong side of council since they control who builds and who does not. This was all done through an architect too. The engineering reports that council has required us to do and implement which the architect mentioned is crazy as he did a similar house only 3 years ago in a different city council region has alone cost us $10k.
The councils are too power hungry and they are not ashamed at all to showcase it. You just have to bend over if you want it done.