BC Update: No.10 - Building Act 2004 now in force

31 Mar 2005: The Building Act 1991 has been repealed and the Building Act 2004 is now fully in force.

See also: Amendments to the Building Act 2004 (as contained in the Building Amendment Act 2005) came into force on 14 April 2005.

The Act introduces major changes for New Zealand’s building control system. It is about improving control of and encouraging better practices in building design and construction, to ensure buildings are built right first time.

The Act introduces a range of measures to achieve this, including bringing more scrutiny into the building consent and inspection process. Those new measures come into force today and include the following:

• A new timeframe of up to 20 working days for councils to consider building consents.
• New conditions for issuing buildings consents that will see more detail required and the use of a new application form.
• Code compliance certificates will now be issued against the conditions in the original building consent.
• The notice to fix replaces the notice to rectify.
• More detailed information to be included in project information memoranda.
• The introduction of the certificate of acceptance.
• Interim code compliance certificates will no longer be issued.
• A new role for the Fire Service in the consent process.
• Changes to building warrants of fitness and compliance schedules.
• New provisions for change of use of a building.
• Transitional provisions for building work granted a building consent before 31 March 2005 and yet to be completed.

Information about the Act for industry and the wider public

The Department of Building and Housing has developed a suite of information materials to assist industry and the wider community to understand the changes.

Copies of a guide to the Act for homeowners who are building or renovating have been distributed to all territorial authorities (TAs). This is also available for download from www.dbh.govt.nz and www.consumerbuild.org.nz (The Building Act and You).

A series of leaflets has also been developed about different aspects of the legislation for different audiences. These will be delivered to TAs as soon as possible in early April. They will be available for download from www.dbh.govt.nz.

Copies of a detailed guide to the new legislation developed for building officials can be obtained from www.dbh.govt.nz (Building Officials’ Guide to the Building Act). This guide provides technical guidance and is suitable for people with a thorough understanding of the 1991 Act.

Section 363

The new legislation makes it an offence to allow the public to use parts of a building that are affected by building work; that is from the time the physical work starts until a code compliance certificate is issued.

Only the part of the building deemed to be affected by building work is out of bounds during this time. This situation means it is likely we will see more use of staged building consents for major projects in the future.

The Department expects that TAs will take the purpose of the section into account in determining their approach to enforcing section 363.

Section 363 is meant to protect the public from being exposed to danger in a building intended for public use. Therefore, in deciding whether or not to prosecute in relation to section 363, a TA should consider the risk to public safety caused by the relevant building work in the particular building. Most TAs are taking a practical, common sense approach to this issue.

Concerns have been raised by the industry and TAs about how this provision works in practice and some problems have arisen around how TAs apply it.

The Department of Building and Housing is aware of some problems with section 363 and is working to address these. Input is being sought from local government and industry representatives. Advice will be provided to Government Ministers shortly and will include consideration of an amendment to the Act to provide practical guidance about how this section applies, together with clearer transition provisions.

Free access to guidance information

Compliance Documents (previously known as Approved Documents), which provide information on how to meet the Building Code’s requirements, will be available free of charge as PDF files on the Department’s website from early April.

From mid-April members of the public will also be able to view Standards cited in the Compliance Documents at the Department’s Wellington office. The most common Standards will also be available for viewing at the Department’s regional offices. Unfortunately these cannot be published on the internet due to copyright considerations.

Compliance Documents will continue to be available for purchase in hard copy and on CD-ROM from Vicbooks in Wellington. Vicbooks will also continue to offer a PDF subscription service (contact Vicbooks at 0800 370 370).