Tiny homes on wheels: vexing questions for owners, councils and makers

Thursday, 15 May 2025

A growing number of tiny homes on wheels are appearing on sections and landscapes across the country

The interpretation of rules around tiny homes has varied between districts, particularly as to whether a tiny home is a vehicle or a building

Owners are calling for clarity and consistency, but new ‘granny flat’ rules likely to come into force next year won’t help, and indications from Ministers suggest the situation will remain as is

Owners and makers of tiny homes on wheels are calling for clarity and consistency around how different councils administer the rules applying to their homes.

The issue was highlighted recently when the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) upheld a Wellington City Council decision that two tiny homes were buildings, not vehicles.

The self-contained tiny homes on wheels were purchased by Steve and Christine Watson in 2016.

The Watsons chose the homes partly on the strength of a ruling by MBIE in 2015 that found the same model of tiny home was a vehicle, not a building, and therefore did not need to comply with the Building Code or Building Act.

The Watsons now have the options of applying for a certificate of acceptance from the council, or removing the tiny homes.

The tiny homes were built by Classic Affordable Cabins. Director Greg Cooper said his company had built dozens of similar cabins that were on properties all over New Zealand, and rules and attitudes to whether they were vehicles or buildings appeared to differ between councils.

“In some places they come and look at them and say they’re fine. In other places they say they need to be on piles and have consents. We thought that decision from 2015 made it pretty clear,” Cooper said.

The question around whether a tiny home on wheels was a building or vehicle depends on various factors, including its size and ability to be transported. A key case on the topic was that of North Canterbury man Alan Dall, who won success when a court over-ruled the view of the local council and MBIE and declared his 8.1m long tiny home on wheels was a vehicle.

The Watsons have written to Chris Bishop, who is Minister of Housing, RMA Reform and Transport, and Chris Penk, who is Minister of Building and Construction urging them to “acknowledge trailerised/relocatable housing solutions and make provision for them in upcoming granny flat/tiny home legislation changes”.

The new ‘granny flat’ rule change will enable some small standalone dwellings to be built without a building consent, and is expected to be force by early next year.

However these changes do not apply to tiny homes on wheels.

Tiny Homes Hub, an organisation that provides guidance to tiny home owners and people interested in tiny homes, has made similar calls for uniformity between councils.

Tiny Homes Hub founder and director Sharla May said it was “incredibly frustrating, disheartening, and frankly wrong that families are being threatened with eviction from healthy, safe, and affordable homes they’ve lived in for years, especially when those homes were set up in good faith based on MBIE’s 2015 determination”.

May said the new granny flat rules “don’t provide any meaningful protection or legal certainty for trailer-based dwellings” and the government had missed a cricual opportunity to address the sort of issues faced by the Watsons now.

“Until we see real legislative change at the Government level, that clearly defines and protects tiny homes, including relocatable and trailered units, these problems will continue. The current framework leaves too much room for individual council interpretation. Not only is it inconsistent between different councils, but we've also seen wildly different interpretations from staff within the same council department,” she said.

Another recent case on the topic involved tiny homes in Canterbury built by Eco Cottages NZ. Hurunui District Council and MBIE ruled the cabins, which consisted of two tiny units on wheels that had been joined together to form T-bone shaped cottages, were immovable buildings.

Eco Cottages owner Colin Wightman said the ruling would affect more than 500 tiny home owners around the country and he has vowed to fight it “to the death”.

Bishop said he would consider and respond to the Watson’s letter.

“Generally, I am interested in simplifying and standardising the rules around tiny homes, which gets raised with me regularly. However this is not on our current work programme due to resourcing pressures,” he said.

Penk said there are no current plans to add buildings with wheels to the granny flat bill, which was expected to be introduced to Parliament shortly.