No.50 - Building consent authority accreditation standards and criteria regulations
9 Jan 2007: The Building (Accreditation of Building Consent Authorities) Regulations 2006 were passed on 18 December 2006. They come into force on 1 February 2007.
These regulations were developed following consultation with local government, building practitioners, and sector organisations.
The regulations set out the standards and criteria that an applicant must meet to be successfully accredited as a building consent authority. The regulations also prescribe the form applicants must use to apply for accreditation.
There are 19 regulations, the most important being that:
- A building consent authority must have appropriate policies, systems and procedures in writing
- A building consent authority must record how it ensures that it implements effective policies, procedures and systems. It must record the key decisions it makes, the reasons for them and the outcomes and actions of these decisions.
Applicants are required to meet 11 of the standards and criteria before 30 November 2007. By this date, an applicant must have:
- accredited policies, procedures and systems for performing its building control functions (defined as those statutory functions under the Act)
- accredited systems for
- ensuring an adequate number of employees and contractors fulfill its building control functions
- establishing and assessing competence of employees to ensure that work is allocated to competent employees or contractors
- training employees
- choosing and using contractors
- identifying and employing technical leadership
- ensuring that the necessary technical resources and equipment are available
- accredited and adequate organisational records (including job descriptions and organisational charts)
- accredited and adequate systems for filing applications for building consents.
The regulations also require that a building consent authority has systems for:
- assuring the quality of its performance of its building control functions (to be in place by 1 December 2010)
- ensuring that employees and contractors undertaking technical building control work have appropriate technical qualifications (to be in place by 1 December 2013).
The regulations will be available for download from the Department’s website or in print form in early January 2007.
Applicants are encouraged to refer to the Department’s Building Consent Authority Accreditation Preparation and Self-assessment Guide (expected to be released in February 2007) to find out more information on the content, purpose and context of the standards and criteria for accreditation regulations.
The Building Consent Authority Accreditation Preparation and Self-assessment Guide
A key step in the process of becoming accredited as a building consent authority involves an applicant organisation undertaking an assessment of its building control operations. To assist in this process, the Department is finalising the Building Consent Authority Accreditation Preparation and Self-assessment Guide.
The Guide will:
- assist organisations to prepare their policies, processes, and procedures for accreditation assessment and ongoing compliance
- assist organisations to assess how well existing policies, processes, and procedures comply with the accreditation requirements
- assist organisations to establish how well implemented their existing or new systems are
- provide good practice guidance that may be used (or adapted for use) by building consent authorities to demonstrate compliance with the accreditation standards.
More specifically, the Guide will provide applicants with:
- information on the sections of the Building Act that cover the building consent authority scheme
- information on the content of each regulation in the Building (Accreditation of Building Consent Authorities) Regulations
- information on the purpose and context behind each regulation
- guidance and examples to assist applicant organisations to prepare system and processes for accreditation assessment
- a list of questions to help applicants to demonstrate how they comply with each regulation
- information on the building consent authority accreditation process
- a self assessment checklist for building consent authorities to use.
The Guide provides a good practice framework to building control in New Zealand. It will be a key tool for applicant building consent authorities to evaluate their current organisational strengths and limitations and prepare for successful accreditation as soon as possible.
The guide is expected to be released in February 2007 and will be available soon after the regulations come into force. The Department will distribute copies of the Guide to territorial and regional authorities, and other sector stakeholders, once it becomes available. Copies will also be freely available to download off the Department’s website.
For more information about the Building Consent Authority accreditation and registration scheme please refer to www.dbh.govt.nz or phone the BCA accreditation & registration project team on 0800 242 243.