Government could scrap consents for low-risk building
Property developers' dreams of faster more cost-effective building consent processes could soon be a reality.
But removing consent from low-risk building could also let cowboys knock up substandard structures, putting people at risk of another disaster in the vein of leaky homes.
Deregulation of low-risk construction is one of the proposed changes to the Building Amendment Bill (2) and the Resource Management Amendment Bill which is currently before Parliament.
Minister for Building and Construction Maurice Williamson says that one of the changes Government is currently looking at is removing consent from construction that it deems to be ‘low-risk’.
The guidelines for what exactly would be determined low-risk have not yet been outlined.
“The government is looking at what really needs to be consented and whether there are opportunities to exempt low-risk work from the need for consent,” Mr Willamson says.
But the rules wouldn't be relaxed for just any old DIYer - only professionals would benefit.
“Looking ahead, I would like to recognise licensed building practitioners by allowing them to do some work without consent,” says Mr Williamson.
He is quick to add that any changes will include providing better information and education on the building code and meeting performance standards.
Location Group property development and investment company director Roy Richardson welcomes changes, saying there is too much re-checking in current consent procedures.
“In my opinion, in many instances builders are more experienced than the inspectors checking the work. There are many low risk items that just waste time by being consented,” Mr Richardson says.
"Common sense tells me whenever there’s danger to a person’s life then you have to be very careful, but changing a few partition walls in the house is pretty minimal stuff."
Mt Hobson Group director Hamish Firth works on town planning and resource consents is on the other side of the fence. He says it is vital to have regulation or control behind all construction, but with a looser leash on builders than current consent processes allow.
In instances where construction is of a set standard, one consent application that can then be applied to each repeated instance of the building would be an ideal solution in Mr Firth’s view.
A low risk garage could have pre-approval, if multiple similar structures are being built on a subdivision for example.
“We want the same standard set of documents used on each of those similar building jobs, that has been pre-approved at a high level if using the same plans. It’s not consent as such but a sign-off. Not regulation-free but a lesser form of regulation,” Mr Firth says.
“If there is no control at all, even for low risk building, we could end up with another leaky homes situation,” Mr Firth warns starkly.
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Comments and questions13
Why not take it away from Councils and have engineers certify the lot?
Too many petty 'little hitlers' abound in council building departments just wanting to bring everyone back to their level and their speed(usually dead slow!)
Maybe re-examine the building code and then open it up to competition among the various engineering companies.
Client service will then reign instead of the current client disservice. If an 'inspector' is not up to it his employer will soon get the message - not like the 'job for life' for failed tradesmen that Council inspection teams currently provide
Probably work out cheaper too
Anyone got Rodney's number?
Does this mean my rates bill will increase to cover the short fail in council revenue?
Councils still need to bring in the same amount of money to cover the work they do.
The money has to come from somewhere.
Good comments Tom. AND BTB-the wages bill won't be so high with all the little hitlers sent on their way.How many less vehicles to run ?? Have you seen how council staff abuse the ratepayer funded vehicles?? Maybe we should privatise district councils and save multi millions there too. Lots of their work could be handled more cost effectively.MT
My experience of 'Council Building Inspectors' is that they were usually 'failed builders'.
Manukau City was one of the first to legislate itself as exempt from responsibility for the 'leaky building syndrome', even though the building work had been passed as satisfactory by their inspectors!. Guesse where most of the leaky buildings are!.
The current RMA Act is nothing more than a Socialist ' Make Work Scheme'.
In 1999 after the election, Jim Anderton stated that if the jobs didn't exist, they (the Labour Govt) would make the jobs. The RMA, and the Local Body 'Power of General Competence Act' lent themselves beautifully to this philosophy
"...But the rules wouldn't be relaxed for just any old DIYer - only professionals would benefit..."
Hilarious. Having renovated several homes both here and the UK that comment made me LOL. Yes there are enough shonky DIYers out there to have a series or two of 'DIY Rescue', but you could have a nightly hour-long series of 'NZ Property Developer Rescue' and never run out of material!
There is nothing wrong with the fundamentals of the consent process, it's only in the last 10-20 years that quality builders have given way to fly-by-night 'Developers' who wouldn't even know how to SPELL 'professional', let alone practise it.
This has exacerbated the situation now that councils are super-paranoid about signing anything off without a dozen inspections.
Quite frankly, the opposite of what is proposed above makes more sense - if you are building one dwelling/structure then minimal consents required, if you are going to be building lots of the same type of buildings and/or an apartment block then every individual unit/dwelling needs to be inspected thoroughly at every stage, because it's being built by a Developer, and we all know what that means.
To have engineers certify is mis-interprets 'building consent'. Sure engineers know about structure, but architects know about structure and building design. Let's have a real debate about this issue by getting our facts straight first.
In Wellington, their is a case where the council employed a developer as a building consent official. Suffice to say, the developer ended up approving his own drawings, and overseeing his construction. The builder couldn't build it properly because of insufficient detail, and no matter anyway, the developer just waived it through. The walls aren't straight, the thing might fall down. It's in the high court at the moment, taken presumably by the unlucky people who bought this house.....a shocker!!
Well suggested, Minister for Building and Construction Maurice Williamson. High time we have a change.
As a way of fixing the revenue short fall, councils could:
1) Down size & get back to basics.
2) Make public transport user pays and NOT propped up by rates. At present councils are burdening retirees with paying for able bodied workers transport costs. Public transport makes up nearly 50% of your rates and is going to increase.
3) Make build construction insurance compulsory.
4) Stop paying for peoples entertainment. ie international soccer stars. Entertainment should be user pays and not part of your rates.
I could go on & on
Currently planners rule the roost at councils, while not all of them have the prerequisite doctorate in theology nevertheless their word is teated as divine, they wont give up their control of the process.
For building or architectural matters why not let the engineer or architect certify in their own capacity, not as a limited liability entity, then see how many will step up to the plate.
Today everyone needs a cheap house. But we should not giveup the safety features for the same. Good comments Tom. AND BTB-the wages bill won't be so high with all the little hitlers sent on their way.
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