Chris Penk says they are looking to make the building consent process more efficient. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The Minister for Building and Construction says he is confident an overhaul of Building Consent Authorities will not leave the country open to a re-run of the leaky homes debacle.
The government is investigating three options to streamline the building consents process and replace the current system where 66 councils across the country act as Building Consent Authorities.
Government looks to overhaul building consent system
Chris Penk said builders having to re-apply for consents for similar projects across different territories of authorities created inefficiencies that brought no added safety for consumers.
"If they've got to reinvent the wheel in terms of approving a set of plans, even though that might have been approved down the road across the boundaries of the next door council jurisdiction, then that's an inefficiency that doesn't actually add any safety from the consumer's point of view."
Penk gave an assurance that changes would not lead to another leaky home saga.
"I can make that commitment because we changed nothing in the building code, we're not lowering any standards, we're just simply asking what a good way to be so that we can reform a system that's currently inefficient and actually has a risk of low quality because you have overwhelming small organisations, being 66 different councils, some of which are very small, [that] don't have the resource to try and do this extremely important work."
But Labour said homeowners could be left carrying the can in another leaky homes crisis if the plans to deregulate the building sector went too far.
Labour's building and construction spokesperson Arena Williams was concerned about the proposals that included contracting inspection to private providers and having a single point of contact for builders submitting plans.
"If it were outsourced to a provider that could in a really big crisis, like the one New Zealand faced in leaky homes, if they were to fold up their business then you've only got homeowners who are the last man standing to be able to continue and they would need to carry the cost."
Asked about who would be liable if things went wrong, Penk said not a word of the Building Act would be changed to lower standards.
Too often it has been ratepayers who have had to foot the bill, he said.
"Part of the work that we're doing is actually being a lot more stringent and a lot harder on those who are doing poor quality work at the same time as we say that we actually want to have greater efficiencies for those that have shown they can be trusted in terms of quality of work, got some decent solvency behind them so they're not going to turn out their pockets and leave the council and the ratepayer as last man standing."
Options for liability could include the homeowner having the work insured, builders, tradespeople and others using professional indemnity insurance, or it could a buyer-beware situation, he said.
"If the private insurer isn't game to be involved in this way and you need to back that with some sort of state-based insurance system such as you have in Australia then you're not necessarily that much better off."
Penk said if the consenting process were more efficient it would save costs.
"We think that we're going to get more certainty and consistency across them, so that will reduce the delays and therefore the costs of each of those different councils doing their own thing and that's a source of frustration for builders and developers as you can imagine, but also from a council point of view, you know they've got limited resources."
If the regional model were adopted that would lead to economies of scale, he said.
"So sometimes you get in a particular area a lot of consent activity because there are a couple of major developments or heaven forbid following a natural disaster, at the moment you don't get that evening out effect."
Some councils were already working this way informally with some busy councils getting less busy nearby councils to do consenting work, he said.
Any of the options an improvement - Property Council
Property Council chief executive Leonie Freeman said the current system was plagued by delays and inconsistencies across regions and any of the proposed changes would be an improvement on what was currently in place.
Property Council on major changes for building consent process
"The one that we've been proposing for some time has been that we would create about 14 regional consenting authorities to tie in previously with the work done in the resource management reform."
The key for the consultation process was to work out in detail how it would work, she said.
There was also the potential for the reforms to improve things for councils, she said.
"If we go to say for example 14 regional ones or there's some sort of consolidation then the councils have got the opportunity to have sort of expertise rather than everybody trying to cover everything."
The Property Council wants to improve the consent process and make it more efficient, she said.
Private consenting providers could be an option but there would need to be checks, she said.
"We have discussed for a number of years about how we can provide a more fair liability system and perhaps reducing councils' risk and one of the options that has been proposed in the past that we've suggested is some sort of insurance. So imagine if you bought a new house it came with a 10 year insurance package, and so if something went wrong with the house you would deal with the insurance company."
The insurance system had been used overseas and the insurance would be part of the price of purchasing the house, she said.