“If we want to grow the economy, lift incomes, create jobs and build more affordable, quality homes we need a construction sector that is firing on all cylinders,” Mr Penk says.
“That is why the next action in our reforms of the sector is to construct a new self-certification scheme for trusted building professionals and accredited businesses carrying out low risk building work.
“The building consent system is intended to protect homeowners from defective building work by requiring work to be inspected and consented by a Building Consent Authority. But the regime is inefficient and adds cost and time to the build process, which makes it harder for Kiwis to realise their dream of homeownership.
“It takes on average 569 days for a home be built and consented – amid a housing shortage, that is simply too long to wait.
That is a ridiculous amount of time made worse by delays in getting consent and then waiting for multiple inspections.
“Today we are announcing plans to develop a new opt-in self-certification scheme for trusted building professionals and accredited businesses. The scheme, which will go through a robust consultation process, features two key pillars.
“The first is that qualified building professionals, such as plumbers, drainlayers and builders, will be able to self-certify their own work, for low-risk builds, without the need for an inspection. This brings them in line with electricians and gasfitters who can already do this and is something the industry has been calling for, for years.
“The second pillar is that businesses with a proven track-record – for example, group homebuilders who build hundreds of near identical homes a year – will be able to go through a more streamlined consent process.
“At the moment, a single-story basic home might go through 10 or more separate inspections. This is clearly too many and the cost-benefit has become unbalanced.
That’s bad enough in urban areas, it’s worse in the country when building inspectors have to travel long distances for multiple inspections.
“Building professionals are already subject to quality assurances such as requirements to be registered and hold a practicing license; keep records of their work; and have their details held in a publicly searchable database. However, as part of the scheme’s design there will be additional safeguards including:
- a clear pathway that customers can access to remedy poor work,
- strengthened qualification requirements for building professionals, and
- strict disciplinary actions for careless or incompetent self-certifiers
“The self-certification scheme will be restricted to low-risk, basic residential dwellings. We know from international evidence that most defective building work happens in complex large developments – we want inspectors to focus their resources on this kind of work.
“Under the current consent settings, councils and their ratepayers are liable for all defective work. This naturally creates a highly conservative approach to consenting, which further slows the process. A model where building practitioners shoulder more of the risk should incentivise better quality work and lower the liability risk for ratepayers.
“We will make detailed policy decisions in the new year following thorough consultation, which will consider what residual role existing Building Consent Authorities should have in the self-certification scheme, for example through an auditing function.
“Kiwis need confidence in the safety and quality of their homes, but it’s possible to do this through a more streamlined assurance pathway. We are committed to cutting through the tangle of red tape so that we can get more Kiwis into the quality homes they deserve.”
These are sensible changes that would reduce the costs of building and the time it takes to build and transfer more of the risk from councils and ratepayers to builders while still ensuring that the building is done well.
Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.
3 comments:
How many 100+ year old houses were built by builders without any qualifications or building permits that are still going strong , and are frequently very desirable and expensive ?
That tells us that the building industry has become over regulated, and now it's time for push back on most of the petty rules.
The leaky homes saga seems forgotten already. it ruined many, including a colleague. Some were at least able to chase the permanent Council. In Oz the leaky pipes disaster is being blamed on faulty installation. Having just observed the electrical and plumbing work on a major renovation and the serious flaws, the prospect of complete non inspection of the latter is terrifying. One consolation; so many plumbing products are questionable, any installation short comings relatively insignificant.This govt is doing much that is commendable. Also much which is not..
In the 1960's and 1970's when I did my Carpentry apprenticeship and then working as tradesman (including building my own house) the time to build a house from applying for a building permit through to getting final signoff by the council was approx 3 - 4 months, not the 12 to 18 months it now takes.
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