Building Control

Council's Building Control department is responsible for making sure all building work in the Southland District complies with the Building Code.

Restricted Building Work and Licensing

From the 1st March 2012, the implementation of Restricted Building Work and Licensing will come into effect.

Building practitioners are required to demonstrate their ability to meet industry consulted competencies to obtain the status of being a Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP).

Restricted Building Work is work which is critical to the integrity of a building and can only be carried out or supervised by tradespeople who are LBPs. Find out if your building project is Restricted Building Work and what this means for you.

The person applying for building consent must submit the Memorandum (Certificate of Design Work) with their application. As the designer, you must provide a Memorandum (Certificate of Design Work) to the building owner as it needs to be given to the local council when applying for building consent.

• Download a Memorandum (Certificate of Design Work)

A Memorandum (Record of Building Work) must be written by each Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP) that carried out or supervised each part of the Restricted Building Work, detailing the work that was carried out.

• Download a Memorandum (Record of Building Work)

For more information visit the Department of Building and Housing's website. The website allows you to search the public register for LBPs in your area.

The Building Act 2004

The Act affects the construction, alteration, demolition and maintenance of new and existing buildings throughout New Zealand. It sets standards and procedures for people involved in building work to ensure buildings are built right first time.  It covers how work can be done, who can do it, and when it needs to be inspected.

Parts of the Act first came into effect on 30 November 2004, and the rules around building consents and inspections explained in this guide came into force on 31 March 2005.

If you have been involved in a building project before this time, you will find there have been some changes to strengthen the system and ensure building work is right first time.

If your building project was consented before 31 March 2005, most of the provisions in this guide apply to you. The only exception is around issuing your code compliance certificate (CCC), which will follow a slightly different process.  If your project received its building consent before 31 March 2005, your final inspection will be considered against the Building Code in place at the time the consent was issued.

The Building Act covers building work, but there are other laws that could affect your project. These include Council bylaws, the Resource Management Act, and the laws specifying that certain plumbing, gas and electrical work must be done by qualified professionals.

Earthquake Prone Buildings

The Building Act 2004 is the legislative expression of the government's policy objective for earthquake strengthening of New Zealand buildings. The District Council Earthquake-prone Dangerous and Insanitary Building Policy 2011 relating to earthquake-prone buildings seeks to reduce the level of earthquake risk to the public over a specified timeframe, targeting the most vulnerable buildings.

Council acknowledges that strengthening of susceptible buildings involves cost to building owners, but supports the underlying principles of enhancing life safety though a systematic approach of identifying at risk buildings.

The Building Code

The Building Code is an important document. It is a set of regulations that define the performance standards buildings must meet, for example how strong an earthquake they must be able to withstand, or how much natural light there must be in a bedroom.

The Building Code sets minimum standards. You may decide to exceed those standards, but you cannot do less than the Building Code requires.

To ensure your project goes smoothly, it is important the person who draws your project plans understands the Building Code requirements and how to meet them, and that the builder builds the building outlined in the approved plans.

Councils have powers to require that property owners fix work not complying with the Building Code.

What work requires a consent and what doesn't, along with the building consent process and forms, are explained and listed on the following pages.

Do you need a building consent?

Basic building jobs, such as laying a patio or installing kitchen cupboards, do not require a building consent.

But many more complicated household projects do. If you considering building or plumbing work, you need to talk to Council building control staff to be sure whether a building consent is required or not.

Work that does require a building consent is set out by the Building Act 2004 (Schedule 1).  Although your particular project may be exempt from the need for a building consent, the work must still satisfy the provisions of the Building Code.

Examples of work that require a building consent:

• Structural - additions, alterations, re-piling, demolition
• Plumbing and drainage (except the repair and maintenance of existing components)
• Relocating a building
• Installing a solid or diesel fired heating unit
• Retaining walls higher than 1.5 metres or taking building/vehicle loading surcharge
• Fences or walls higher than 2 metres and all swimming pool fences
• Swimming pools
• Decks, platforms or bridges more than 1 metre above ground level
• Sheds greater than 10 square metres in floor area

Examples of work that don't require a building consent:

• Decks, platforms or bridges with a fall height of less than 1 metre
• Garden trellis or fences less than 2 metres high
• Installing kitchen cupboards
• Small garden ponds less than 400mm depth
• Maintenance of homes, for example, replacing spouting or a piece of weatherboard
• Building a garden shed or outbuilding less than 10 square metres in floor area and greater than its own height from a boundary

If you are unsure, please contact Council's Building Control Department on 0800 732 732 or email building_cs@southlanddc.govt.nz

The department is managed by Kevin O'Connor, with eight building control officers, two building consent processing officers and two customer services officers.