Posts Tagged ‘building act’
New Zealand’s Building and Construction Minister Maurice Williamson, this afternoon announced that the Government will introduce amendments to the Building Act 2004 that will help cut red-tape and bureaucracy and make builders more accountable.
The planned changes to the Act will be phased in over time. Some of the incentives to build it right first time to be introduced to Parliament this year include:
- explicitly stating that builders and designers are accountable for meeting Building Code requirements;
- mandatory written contracts for building work above $20,000 that set out expectations, warranties and remedies, and how any disputes will be resolved;
- requiring those doing the work to explain what, if any, financial back-up or insurance they have to remedy any faults.
The planned amendments will also see some minor, low-risk work, exempted from the need for a building consent. Examples of such exempted work will include:
- Replacement or alteration of internal wall and floor linings and finishes in a dwelling.
- Adding lightweight stalls (eg, used at fairs and exhibitions) to the current exemption for tents and marquees.
- Fabric shade sails and associated structural supports that do not exceed 50 square metres in area (with limitations on matters such as the level on which the sails are installed and distance from a legal boundary).
- Installation, replacement or alteration of thermal insulation in existing buildings (excluding exterior walls and fire walls). This clarifies that retrofitting ceiling and underfloor insulation will not need a consent.
- Penetrations with a maximum diameter of 300mm (including associated weatherproofing, fireproofing and any other finishings) to enable the passage of pipes, cables, ducts, wires, hoses and the like through any existing building. This clarifies that for example a heat pump can be installed without needing a consent, although the wiring must be done by a registered electrician.
- Signs and associated structural supports where the sign is no more than 3 metres high and the face area of the sign does not exceed 6 square metres.
- Height restriction gantries (e.g. a vehicle height warning in a car park).
- Private playground equipment used in association with a single household where no part of the equipment extends more than 3 metres above the ground.
Mr Williamson says the Government can only make changes to the building consent process to reduce costs once it has confidence in the quality of what is being built.
The Government is proposing to introduce a ‘stepped’ approach to building consents and inspections after mid-2012 once the other improvements are in place to drive quality, including the licensing of building practitioners.
You can read the Minister’s media release and find out more on the Department of Building and Housing’s website at: www.dbh.govt.nz/buildingactreview
The last couple of weeks have been a real adrenalin rush. Fuzo’s finders have bought and sold a couple of fantastic minor dwellingable (new word we created) properties, we are doing many due diligence reviews on propertiesfor Fuzo clients to subdivide, and of course lots of great work for the Auckland Property Investors Association (“APIA”). I am a passionate member and on the Board of APIA, currently holding the position of Secretary. APIA provides a massive lobbying force, group to network with, access to local area and special property interest groups, the NZ Property Investor Magazine, discounts and of course monthly meetings with great topics and speakers. I think every property investor in Auckland would receive fantastic benefits from joining APIA. I have been working with Garth Melville (our Treasurer) on APIA’s submission of the Reform of the Associated Persons Rules (ie the tainting rules). Combining President Andrew King’s input with property investor statistics we compiled a fantastic submission. Other bloggers here have talked about this issue, so I will not thrash it – instead I will update you with what changes are made if any as soon as I know about it.
Initial reactions to new housing rules
We are seeing a number of Interesting things lately – eg. proposals to have double glazing of windows of all homes, stricter rules on insulation and a myriad of smaller things all designed to maximise heat prevention (which is great) but sadly this will raise the cost of new houses. And when people and the media complain of higher house prices, this will just take house prices that much further. In certain areas of New Zealand (eg parts of Southland) to build the cheapest possible permitted home you will have the situation of the house costing well over $1,000 per square metre to build, when the neighbouring older houses could be worth $500 per square metre. Building new houses will be that much tougher for many home owners, and indeed investors alike.
My advice – call an architect or development specialist before embarking on ANY structural building project, then get estimates of costs from them and reliable builders to know what your project costs is going to be. Too many people are thinking that their building will be just like the last one they did 4 years ago.
Newsflash: the rules have changed. The Building Act 2004 has come in, the Building Code is far far stricter and more expensive to comply with. Materials and labour costs have risen too, council fees are Massively up in some cases quadruple what they were 4 years ago! In addition some council now have new revenue streams (eg. development contributions) that they justify under the Local Government Act. So acknowledging that it is development and some variations are going to occur – make sure that you have a pretty firm idea on the numbers, to ensure that you can finance the project, then don’t delay, just do it.
As to what strategies I believe that you need to adopt for success today – this will come in tomorrow’s blog.