Council inspectors last checked on safety systems at Loafers Lodge in Newtown five years ago. Photo: RNZ /Angus Dreaver
Council inspectors last checked on safety systems at Loafers Lodge five years ago, even though they are meant to check every year.
Prior to the 2018 audit, the next previous one at the boarding house building was six years before, in 2012.
The midnight fire among the warren of rooms on the top floor of the Newtown building killed five people.
Residents have said they had problems with its alarm system and stairwells.
Government building regulations hold councils responsible to do back-up audits of commercial buildings - and most regularly, once a year, at boarding houses as they are the highest risk.
Loafers Lodge had a Building Warrant of Fitness (BWOF) issued by the council in March 2023, based on Independent Qualified Persons (IQP) checks of its 13 safety systems. These were compliant, the IQPs reported.
However, the council was meant to do a back-up audit annually and not just accept this on paper.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has repeatedly warned councils nationwide the BWOF system is ineffective because they are not going on-site often enough.
But it does not have explicit laws or regulations even, to back this up, and lapses have persisted at most councils. Auckland only audits boarding houses every three to five years, not once a year.
The most recent of two Wellington City Council audits in 11 years at Loafers found "a number of non-compliances in the 2018 audit which were worked on with the building owner over the following months", the council said today.
"This included issuing notices to fix and an infringement notice," chief planning officer Liam Hodgetts said on Tuesday afternoon in a statement.
RNZ had been asking for this information for over a week.
Asked if the council had an established programme that mandated and ensured annual audits of such buildings, it said:
"The council's building compliance team does not differentiate between the use of the building in how we organise our audits, but we do prioritise based on time since last audit and any compliance issues."
The 2018 audit found fault with the lodge's access control system, found smoke-stop doors wedged open, and stuff stored in the fire exit routes.
"Please ensure that these items are removed," the council inspector wrote to owner Rehslew Investments.
"A fire/smoke door that is wedged open will not be able to complete the job ... and will adversely affect their fire resistance function."
The access system - probably for residents to use cards to get in and about - had been recently installed without a building consent.
This could become an evacuation barrier.
It issued a Notice to Fix.
The council reminded the owner it was their responsibility to ensure that IQPs, who did checks, followed the most up-to-date compliance schedule - which lists the variance safety systems and the standards they must meet.
MBIE has faulted many councils previously for not keeping individual buildings' compliance schedules updated in line with changes in the building code and regulations.
When Loafers was last audited, five years ago, it had compliance issues.
"We are reviewing how we can gather up-to-date information regarding the location of these types of accommodation to better inform prioritisation decisions," Hodgetts said.
The council's rate of doing BWOF on-site audits across all types of the 2850 buildings it must monitor, appears from its figures to be 3 percent a year, but the council's own calculations are it is doing 20-33 percent per year. RNZ is seeking to clarify this.
Hodgetts said it was putting more resources into BWOFs in response to MBIE's assessments.
"Supported by additional resources and recent improvements in technology (based on MBIE's exemplar compliance schedule) the council is committed to monitoring compliance schedules and BWOFs," he said.
A review instigated by Mayor Tory Whanau had identified 25 buildings similar to Loafers Lodge.
From that, the council would do more work to bring together information held across different teams, as well as NGOs and government agencies, to "prioritise BWOF audits".
"The council is always looking to improve process and systems, and this will be a continual focus as we receive the outcomes of investigations into the tragedy.
"In the past two years, the council has increased resourcing to improve the way it handles compliance schedules, particularly regarding the building consent process, and the issuing of new and amended compliance schedules."
A new software application would help, Hodgetts said.