Builders to be allowed to self-certify in consent shake up

Tuesday, 29 October 2024

Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk said the changes were needed so that reputable builders ”can get on with it, without an endless number of inspections from council that don't necessarily add much quality assurance”.

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The Government will today unveil the next stage of its building reforms, allowing building professionals with indemnity insurance to self-certify their own work with the goal of cutting out council inspectors and reducing cost and delays for consumers.

“The building consent system currently is one size fits all. There are really good trade professionals who aren't trusted to get on and do the work and certify their own work,” Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk told The Post.

Penk said that while dodgy tradies will still need to be regulated, the changes were needed so that reputable builders ”can get on with it, without an endless number of inspections from council that don't necessarily add much quality assurance”.

The changes could potentially mean that new, simple, repeatable houses built by big reputable builders ‒ such as GJ Gardner or Jennian Homes ‒ could be built without any building consents at all.

Currently electricians and gasfitters can self-certify their work, but the proposed changes will applying to plumbers, builders and drainlayers.

The Minister for Building and Construction announces new reforms to simplify New Zealand's building consent system. Aiming to reduce costs and delays, these changes address frustrations expressed by builders and aim for nationwide consistency.

For builders, it should massively speed up and cheapen the consenting process for new simple builds, reducing costs for the end consumer.

For existing homeowners doing renovations it could mean simple work such as re-lining a house or improving energy efficiency will be able to be certified by a builder without needing the local Building Consent Authority ‒ usually the local council ‒ to come back and inspect any work.

Penk said that although the details still needed to be worked through, the new regime should provide more protection for consumers, not less, because often the people doing the work are more expert than the inspectors and carry significant insurance through licensing bodies such as Master Builders and Master Plumbers

“It's more meaningful to have the assurance of someone being responsible by signing off their own work themselves, plus having a professional body with some sort of monetary backing of them, rather than just that sort of general recourse of having to sue them, and then the ratepayers sort of being at the bottom of it all,” Penk said

While the detailed policy work and consultation is yet to be done it is envisaged to be an “opt-in” scheme for eligible professionals such as builders, plumbers and drainlayers.

The building consent system currently is one size fits all, says Penk.

Because many building professionals already hold indemnity insurance, consultations and policy work will be undertaken to work how redress works and whether the Government will set up some sort of centralised body to manage indemnity and complaints.

It will be part of what is understood to be a number of announcements by Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Tuesday afternoon.

This is part of what the Government calls its “risk-based” approach to risk in the building sector, and it is the next step in a process that is investigating slashing the number of building consent authorities and allow granny flats up to a certain size to be to built without a consent.

“The Building Act is a response to a system failure that was leaky buildings,” Penk said. But while Penk said it made sense at the time, today’s changes were the result of “discussions around swinging the pendulum back from being hyper regulated and over regulated in terms of lack of efficiency in the system”.

The National Party promised self-certification of plumbers for plumbing work in the lead-in to the last election.

“We've been four years advocating for this, so it's been a lot of pain with the previous government,” said Greg Wallace, chief executive of Master Plumbers.

“What we had in an eight-year construction boom is we had up to 20 days’ wait for a pre line inspection, he said.

He said that in Auckland an inspector might have to drive 40 minutes for a five-minute inspection before a new house was allowed to be lined.

“The council's all about risk and liability. This is putting the risk on the trades people, and that's where it should lie. They should be responsible for the work they do,” Wallace said.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said a plumber might have to drive 40 minutes for a five-minute inspection, instead of an inspector.