Government urges action on building owners who ignored repair deadline

Wednesday, 7 March 2018

Cuba Mall was the scene of a firearm-related police call out.

Owners of dozens of buildings in high pedestrian areas assessed as posing a risk to the public will be granted another six months to secure unreinforced masonry.

But the extension announced by Building and Construction Minister Jenny Salesa only applies to building owners who have taken 'reasonable steps' to meet the deadline.

Salesa has urged the council to take action against those who have made little effort.

Around 200 buildings mostly in Wellington and Lower Hutt were identified as part of a project to address unreinforced masonry in early 2017, in the months after the Kaikōura earthquake.

* Government planning deadline extension for unreinforced masonry repairs

* Council ponders enforcement action for Wellington building owners on its 'red list'**

Most of the deadlines expire around March 29, however many will miss the deadline.

'This amendment is to help building owners who've made genuine efforts, but haven't met the deadline, due to capacity constraints in the sector,' Salesa said in a statement.

'Where building owners have done nothing, I expect councils to exercise their powers to manage public safety risks.'

As well as restricting access to the building, the penalty with non-compliance is a fine of up to $200,000.

The extension was expected, with councils likely to focus on the language which Salesa used to describe what would constitute 'reasonable steps'.

Salesa said 'reasonable steps' would include 'design work being complete, or in progress, and a demonstrable programme of work. The programme of work provides an indication of when the building owner will contract a builder and when the work is expected to be completed.'

While many building owners are racing to take steps to satisfy the Wellington City and Hutt City councils that they have plans to meet at least the extended deadline, a handful of buildings in Wellington and several in Lower Hutt could face cordons.

Wellington City Council spokeswoman Jacqui Hastie said most of the 113 buildings identified in Wellington city as part of the project would meet the original deadline.

'For any owners who do not meet the reasonable steps criteria, the deadline for completing their securing work is the end of March. If they don't comply with this Wellington City Council will be taking a strong line.'

Hastie said the council continued to offer building owners 'case manager' support including facilitating access to professional contractors who have capacity to do the physical work required.

'Owners who meet the reasonable steps criteria (and therefore have a further six month period to complete this work) have a responsibility to continue to progress their URM securing work at speed and Council will be actively monitoring this.'

Following the Kaikoura earthquake in November 2016, engineers wrote to the Government warning of the risks posed by unreinforced masonry in a time of heightened seismic activity.

In the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, 39 people were killed as a result of debris falling from buildings with unreinforced masonry.