Changes to the Building Act 2004
From 1 March 2012, critical building work, known as Restricted Building Work, must be done by a Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP).
If you are intending to build or you are building, these changes will affect you. It will be your responsibility, as the owner, to check that all building practitioners that you are using are licensed in order to carry out, or supervise, work on homes and small-medium sized apartment buildings that is critical to the integrity of the building.
This 'restricted building work’ applies to, but is not limited to:
- Foundations
- Framing
- Roofing
- Cladding
- Active fire safety systems in small-medium sized apartment buildings
An exemption will be available to owner-builders (do-it-yourselfers) when the Building Amendment Bill No. 3 has been passed into law.
From 1 March 2012, building consent applications will not be accepted unless they include a Memorandum -Certificate of design work (PDF 173kb) from a LBP certifying that the design work complies with the Building Code.
Licensed Building Practitioners include, but are not limited to:
- Designers
- Carpenters
- Roofers
- External Plasterers
- Bricklayers
- Block layers
Registered architects, chartered professional engineers and plumbers are deemed to be LBPs.
Licensed Building Practitioners will also need to provide a Memorandum - Record of Building Work (PDF 159kb) when the work has been completed.
This change is one of several that the government made to the Building Act 2004 in 2007 to encourage better building design and construction. For more information on the LBP scheme, please refer to www.dbh.govt.nz/lbp. Also check out the DBH 'Build It Right' (PDF 518kb) brochure.
When you need a building consent
You’ll need a building consent for most building work you plan to undertake, such as:
- Structural work
- Plumbing and drainage work
- Relocating a building
- Demolishing a building
- Installing a wood burner or air conditioning system
- A retaining wall higher than 1.5m
- A fence or wall higher than 2.5m, and all swimming pool fences
- A swimming pool
- A deck, platform and/or bridge over 1m above ground level
- Sheds more than 10m2 in floor area
Only very minor building work is allowed without a building consent.
When you don’t need a building consent
You don't need a building consent for work that is very minor and does not have a major impact, such as:
- Fences up to 2.5m in height except pool fences, which do require consent. (Fences over 2.0m in height will require resource consent)
- Retaining walls up to 1.5m high where no loading is applied
- A small, single-storey garden shed less than 10m2 in floor area
- Closing in an existing veranda or patio where the floor area is less the 5m2
- A patio or deck at ground level
- A garden trellis less than two metres high
- Installing kitchen cupboards
- A small garden pond less than 400mm deep
- Maintenance of your house, such as replacing spouting or weatherboards
- Roofing or cladding when you’re replacing existing material with the same material for maintenance purposes
- Replacing windows and doors, as long as the dimensions and materials don’t change
- Removing a sign and its structural support
- Erecting a sign and its structural support if it is designed by a structural engineer, or if it is less than 6m2 in area and less than 3m above ground.
We recommend you get in touch with us before you start any building work, even if you don't think it needs a building consent.
Building without building consent
If you commence work without a building consent you may be served with a Notice to Fix immediately and/or you may be prosecuted and fined up to $200,000. Even if you have submitted a building consent application, you must wait till you are granted a consent to build.
Do you also need resource consent?
You may also need to apply for resource consent if your proposed project doesn’t comply with our District Plan rules. This will be determined when you apply for your building consent. We will advise you whether you need to apply for resource consent after we have assessed your building consent application.
If you start building work before a resource consent has been given (if it is needed) then you may be served with an Abatement Notice or Enforcement Order and substantial fines may be imposed.
If you are unsure, get in touch with us for free advice about whether resource consent is required.