Rules for earthquake-prone buildings likely to 'become less onerous'

A government review into better managing the risks of earthquake-prone buildings has kicked off.

In April, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk signalled the planned review would be brought forward. That work has begun with a report due in the first half of 2025.

"Without prejudging the outcome of the review, it's likely that the rules become less onerous," Penk told Morning Report.

"We want to move in the direction of making it more feasible for people to get on and do the works. But of course, we're balancing that against life safety risk."

He said the method of measuring the new building standard (NBS) to determine what was at risk was an issue.

"We've got is a slightly confusing scenario where you can have the percentage as low as say, 35 percent, which might sound pretty poor, but actually if that's within that middle third so above the crucial 34 percent threshold, then actually it's okay."

But that was not received well by tenants and engineers who looked at the problem from a different perspective, "including health and safety legislation and thinking about their liability".

"So you've sort of got at least a couple of different standards floating around out there and that's before you get to the confusion around how you measure."

The current system lacked clarity, and some owners were stuck in impossible situations, where they could not move forward with the remediation but equally struggled to sell their buildings, Penk said in a statement.

"Buildings sitting empty and abandoned for months, or, in many cases, years is bad for everyone. Empty, derelict buildings can be dangerous, but they are also a handbrake on growth and development and can suck the life out of a town or city."

He said earthquake-prone buildings were not getting remediated "due to high remediation costs and an excessive layering of regulations".

The review will be headed by an external, independent chair.

It will focus on:

• cost of mitigating earthquake risk and improving buildings' resilience
• proposals for managing earthquake risk with effect on private property owners
• barriers and the types of incentives that would help building owners better manage seismic risk
• changes that align with broader government objectives, such as going for housing growth and rebuilding the economy

Public can provide feedback on building.govt.nz site or by emailing building@mbie.govt.nz

Penk, in April, said owners would have four extra years to fix their buildings while the review took place.

He encouraged owners to use the extension "to continue to make improvements to their buildings, particularly due to the positive impacts that remediation has for insurance and their ability to get tenants".

Nearly 500 deadlines were set to expire over the next four years.