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Notifications of dangerous and insanitary buildings

One of the Department's key roles under the Building Act 2004 is to monitor and review the performance of territorial authorities in relation to their building control functions. This includes how they deal with dangerous and insanitary buildings.

One means of monitoring performance is through formal technical reviews of individual territorial authorities. Another means is through being notified of possible dangerous or insanitary buildings.

Once a notification is received, the Department undertakes a five-step process.

  1. Consideration and assessment to determine an appropriate course of action.
  2. Follow-up with stakeholders (eg, the responsible territorial authority, New Zealand Fire Service or the notifier).
  3. Recommending possible action to the territorial authority, if needed.
  4. Monitoring and tracking the territorial authority's response.
  5. Undertaking any further action required (eg, ensuring intelligence gathered is incorporated into other departmental regulatory activity).

The Department has also produced guidance information in this area for territorial authorities. These guidance documents are available on the Department's website at www.dbh.govt.nz

Since December 2005, the Department has received 39 formal notifications. Twenty-six of these have come from the New Zealand Fire Service. The remaining 13 have come from the public, the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service, territorial authorities and practitioners.

The most common reason for the notification is an expired or no building warrant of fitness (14 out of 39 notifications). Three other common reasons relate to:

  • accessibility compliance (eg, escape routes being blocked or built over)
  • fire compliance (eg, restricted means of escape, and having glazing and covering on surfaces that would aid the spread of fire)
  • structural instability as a result of rot and decay.

The Department expects territorial authorities to follow up on notifications received, given their statutory obligations in this area.