The government is moving to streamline the building consent regime by swapping out some council inspections for a self-certification scheme.
Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk said the proposal was for building professionals with indemnity insurance working on low-risk projects.
It would allow qualified trade professionals - including plumbers, drainlayers and builders - to sign-off on their work without needing council inspection.
Building professionals will be able to certify own work
Penk told Checkpoint the new scheme was designed for builders "operating at scale" that could be held accountable for their work, and would also factor in the company's track record.
"Those that can be trusted to do well because they have been doing good work already with a strong track record to prove it, will be able to be trusted more than those... who don't have a good record, large or small."
The changes were also expected to cover large homebuilding businesses that construct hundreds of near-identical homes a year.
"The building consent system is intended to protect homeowners from defective building work by requiring work to be inspected and consented by a Building Consent Authority," Penk said.
"But the regime is inefficient and adds cost and time to the build process, which makes it harder for Kiwis to realise their dream of homeownership. It takes on average 569 days for a home be built and consented [to] - amid a housing shortage, that is simply too long to wait."
Under current legislation, building consents are issued by a building consent authority, usually a local and district council, but can also be a regional council, or private organisation.
Penk said the new opt-in self-certification scheme would undergo a robust consultation process in two stages.
Christopher Luxon and Chris Penk provide an update on building consent changes, at a briefing in Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
"The first is that qualified building professionals, such as plumbers, drainlayers and builders, will be able to self-certify their own work, for low-risk builds, without the need for an inspection.
"This brings them in line with electricians and gasfitters who can already do this and is something the industry has been calling for, for years.
"The second pillar is that businesses with a proven track-record - for example, group homebuilders who build hundreds of near identical homes a year - will be able to go through a more streamlined consent process.
"At the moment, a single-story basic home might go through 10 or more separate inspections. This is clearly too many and the cost-benefit has become unbalanced."
Penk said building professionals were already subject to quality assurances like holding a practising license, keeping records of their work and having their details in a publicly searchable database.
File image. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Additional safeguards like a clear pathway for customers to remedy poor work, tougher qualification requirements for building professionals and strict disciplinary actions for careless or incompetent self-certifiers would be put in place, he said.
"We will make detailed policy decisions in the new year following thorough consultation, which will consider what residual role existing Building Consent Authorities should have in the self-certification scheme, for example through an auditing function.
"Kiwis need confidence in the safety and quality of their homes, but it's possible to do this through a more streamlined assurance pathway. We are committed to cutting through the tangle of red tape so that we can get more Kiwis into the quality homes they deserve."
However, president of the Home Owners and Buyer's Association (HOBANZ) John Gray told Checkpoint there were aspects of the proposal that were a "grave cause for concern".
"This trusted professional accreditation is probably one of the worst aspects... It needs to be very robust and we need to see the detail," he said.
Making sure the builders were held responsible for doing quality work was key, Gray said.
The consequences of signing off on inadequate work also needed to be greater, Penk said.
"We've been engaging already with banks and insurers, as well as those that build and and the public more generally, and they tell us they want us to to be more forceful on those that do poor job."
Under the new scheme builders who signed off on work that was deemed not to have met standards should have their builder's licence revoked, he said.
Gray also wanted to see penalties imposed upon those who failed to meet standards.
There must be "appropriately weighted civil or criminal sanctions to be applied to those individuals, the companies and their executives who who fail New Zealand consumers when it comes to building houses," he said.
Speaking to reporters at the announcement, Luxon said red tape was "regulation that doesn't have a benefit" and the government was focused on ensuring three things with these changes: having qualified builders and tradespeople, good consumer protection and penalties for cowboy operators, and speeding the system up.
"We just have to be prepared, we've talked about a housing crisis for some time ... we need to be able to build more affordable homes in New Zealand.
"When you get to the root cause of some of our social problems, if you've got housing insecurity ... kids get bounced from school to school. If you think about some of the social challenges that we've got, a lot of it comes back to the cornerstone of being able to secure good, affordable housing in any of those parts in the market."
The government wanted to crack down on "cowboy" operators while also allowing trust of the tradespeople who could be trusted, Penk said.
"We've got the worst of both worlds at the moment, and we need to move in a direction that improves the quality by incentivising those who do a good job."
"It's not about lowering standards, it's about placing the requirements of the system and the resources to where they're most needed .... rather than having that regulation for regulation's sake."
He said indemnity insurance, guarantees and bonds on behalf of the tradespeople was what would enable removing the consenting authorities' involvement at every step of the building process.
Luxon said New Zealand also needed a more stable rental market and social housing system.
"People would be able to have more money in their own pocket, and so I appreciate there may be data around showing that [rents] are falling, I've seen data suggesting that, but the data that I use suggests that rents are stable."
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