Building consent inspections to be virtual by default, government says

The government wants to make remote virtual inspections the default for building consents across New Zealand.

Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk announced the plan to seek feedback on the move in the second half of this year, saying a video conferencing approach will reduce travel times and delays to get a building consent.

"Remote inspections offer significant productivity gains that make it easier and cheaper to build. However, the use of remote inspections is currently inconsistent across the country, with some councils being reluctant to use it," he said.

"That's why the government is progressing work to make remote inspections the default approach across New Zealand."

Penk said the move would also lower transport emissions, lead to better record keeping and documentation, and reduce the time wasted by increasing flexibility for inspectors and building professionals alike.

Instead of a building inspector turning up with a clipboard to the location, it would be mean video and photos are sent for checks, with possible use of tools like geolocation to verify the place they were taken.

Penk told Checkpoint they would "crack down pretty hard on that" on anyone trying to play the system but "most builders are trustworthy".

All kinds of measurements could be done remotely, and most of the things that would be checked visually could likewise be done remotely, he said.

However, Penk acknowledged there might be situations where it might not be appropriate for inspections to be done remotely, but believed that would be rare.

"The interesting thing is the Building Act doesn't actually talk about building inspections at all, there's no consistency, no clear requirement, so that's something that we could get into to actually have a much more certain and consistent regime.

"Because it's the lack of consistency that's actually causing a lot of problems out there. If you talk to builders doing work across more than one council jurisdiction, they're frustrated because the rules change according to which side of the line on the map you're talking about."

There are 67 building consent authorities, which is mostly councils and Kāinga Ora's independent organisation called Consentium for state homes.

Penk believed some of the reluctance around doing remote inspections was to do with councils' nervousness and risk aversion.

"And actually that's perfectly reasonable, if we think that they're looking to avoid the liability that can attach to them, up to 100 percent of liability in the case that something goes wrong if the builder disappears or claims insolvency or whatever, so naturally they're risk-averse and that's the situation we acknowledge.

"That's why we want to give them the tools or encourage them or require them to use the tools that are already there at their disposal, so we've got these better outcomes and they can have confidence to be part of that system."

There were examples of councils having to do things remotely during pandemic, he said.

"For those who have a different view from other BCAs [building consenting authorities], frankly, are behind the eight ball in the world of 2024, they need to realise that this isn't a costless exercise to have these massive delays that are causing huge issues for builders, many of whom are facing insolvency as a result of the lack of productivity in the sector and of course for the homeowner, or the would-be homeowner who ends up bearing the brunt of these additional costs."

Councils have the ability to set fees to recover costs. Penk said he could not direct them on fees, but believed if less time was spent on the logistics of inspections then costs would be saved.