NZ Building Act Changes

As a result of changes to the NZ Building Act, from 1 March some important changes in how building work is undertaken will occur. These changes only affect residential building work. The changes will not affect commercial buildings or apartment buildings more than 10 metres high.

If the work is structural or affects the weathertightness of the building the work may be Restricted Building Work. This means the work will have to be either undertaken or supervised by a Licensed Building Practitioner. LBPs include designers, carpenters, roofers, external plasterers, bricklayers, blocklayers, site and foundations. For a list of LBPs go to www.dbh.govt.nz/lbp

Registered architects and chartered professional engineers are automatically treated as Design LBPs.

Anyone who applies for a building consent after 1 March must ensure the contractors they use are licensed. If they do not have the correct licence it means the Council may not be able to accept the building application or allow the building work to proceed.

These changes do not affect building consents issued before 1 March or consents issued after 1 March lodged with Council before 1 March. 

For more information go to Department of Housing and Building website.