Building Regulatory System

System description

The Building Regulatory System provides for the regulation of buildings, building work and various occupational groups in the building industry, and the setting of building performance standards to achieve the following purposes set in the Building Act 2004.

Objective of the system

• People who use buildings can do so safely.
• Buildings contribute appropriately to health, physical independence, and wellbeing.
• Buildings comply with fire safety.
• Buildings are sustainably designed, and constructed.
• The accountability of owners, designers, builders, and building consent authorities is promoted.

Regulatory assessment and charter completed.

Fitness-for-purpose

• Learn more about the fitness-for-purpose assessment and ratings

Effectiveness

System has some issues against criteria

The building regulatory system is complex, with intricate legal and institutional arrangements. We are developing our understanding of what an effectively functioning building regulatory system looks like in practice; however, there is not yet an agreed framework to reflect how well the system is meeting these objectives. In the meantime, changes are being made to improve building consent authority performance, protect consumers if things go wrong, and better safeguard the health and safety of building users in light of what has been learned from the recent earthquakes. Evaluation will be required in order to gauge how effective these changes have been.

Reviews to improve our understanding of the system’s effectiveness are also underway, including a comprehensive review of the product assurance system begun in 2017, with initial recommendations in late 2017 and system changes implemented in 2018.

Efficiency

System has significant issues against criteria

The building regulatory system is broad and complex, with multiple compliance pathways that can make the system challenging to use. A comprehensive review is being scoped to look into how the system can be made easier to use. This could include simplifying compliance pathways, or simply making it easier for parties to access and understand the information they need. Consultation is also planned in 2017/18 to look at bringing the risk-based consenting provisions in the Building Act into force in 2020. This would reduce the number of checks and inspections required for low-risk and simple residential building consents, with the goal of improving system efficiency and refocusing more Building Consent Authority (BCA) attention on higher-risk consents.

Our regulatory system assessment concluded that we needed to make changes to be a more effective central regulator. We are now responding to these findings, including through a branch review focused on clarifying our functions and responsibilities and ensuring sufficient capability and capacity for the leadership of the regulatory system.

Resilience

System has significant issues against criteria

The system’s performance-based design and multiple compliance pathways were intended to allow for flexibility and innovation. It is unclear to what extent this is the case in practice. There is not yet a clear pathway by which new or innovative approaches can become recognised as industry best practice.

The system responds reasonably quickly to earthquakes and other specific events. We are still working to bed in some of the large-scale recommendations following the earthquakes, and is about to implement more earthquake-related legislation changes.

Fairness and accountability

System has significant issues against criteria

It can be difficult and costly for home owners to hold building practitioners to account if something goes wrong. Work is currently underway to improve the fairness, transparency and consistency of the complaints processes across sector occupations, and to ensure the fair distribution of liability and risk across the sector. A consumer and practitioner education campaign has also been launched to ensure the people using the systems understand their obligations and how to comply. BCAs are held accountable for their performance against the standards in the Building Act through assessment by International Accreditation New Zealand. We have completed a review of the BCA accreditation scheme, and has made regulatory changes to improve performance and our ability to monitor it. We are also working to support BCAs in clustering for greater consistency and efficiency.

Key service design and operational changes

August 2016 to July 2017

In November 2016, the Licensed Building Practitioners Rules 2007 were amended. The amendment included general competency changes for Design, Brick and Blocklaying and External Plastering to keep up to date with industry changes.

2016/17 has seen the highest volume of complaints about LBPs since the Scheme was introduced — a reflection of the level of building activity occurring. Operational improvements include:

• an update to complaints guidance on the LBP website to ensure that consumers and LBPs can better navigate the complaints process
• a review of the LBP complaints process made a number of operational efficiencies
• a restricted building work communication campaign to lift both consumer and practitioner awareness of the requirements of RBW.

August 2017 to July 2018

We are currently undertaking a review focused on clarifying our functions and responsibilities and ensuring sufficient capability and capacity for the management of the regulatory system. Building Consent Authorities are working together to deliver certain services jointly – so to improve consistency and leverage the benefits of scale. We are supporting these processes.

Work is currently underway to improve to Building Practitioner Board procedures and composition to address constraints and enable flexibility and responsive during periods of high complaints volumes. This includes looking at the co-opting mechanisms.

A new LPB skills maintenance model will be fully implemented in November 2017.

Planned regulatory amendments to legislation for 2017/2018