IN THE KNOW —
You should use determinations under the Building Act Getting a ruling on a legal dispute is normally quite expensive. If you elect to sue in court – or you get sued so you have no choice in the matter – the cost of it can make the whole exercise pointless unless there is a substantial amount of money at stake.
Fortunately, if you are a party to a building contract you can normally use the much cheaper and faster process known as adjudication under the Constructions Contracts Act, but even that normally costs upwards of $20,000, so it’s only worth it if you are trying to collect more than that. If you are prepared to take your chances with a non-expert process and the amount at stake is no more than $30,000, then you can always use the extremely cheap, informal and relatively fast Disputes Tribunals (our small claims courts) where you argue your case yourself (without a lawyer) before a Referee (who is not an expert in construction law), and you hope that the Referee sees it your way. However, if you want an expert ruling for an affordable cost, there are some very cheap ways of getting a ruling that you ought to consider. One way to get a ruling on whether your work was up to scratch is, ironically, to have a complaint made against you (assuming you are a licensed building practitioner) to the Building Practitioners Board. It is not something you would
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voluntarily subject yourself to (unless you really back yourself), but my point is that it’s not necessarily the end of the world if it does happen. That is because you will be judged by a panel of experts (lawyers, engineers, architects, quantity surveyors, building surveyors, builders, etc.) who understand the industry just like you do. If you have done nothing wrong, they will say so, and that decision goes on the public record so that you can use it in evidence if you are ever challenged later. But there is an even better way to get an expert ruling on the standard of your workmanship (among other things) and that is to apply to the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) for what is known as a “determination”. This is a process that has been available ever since the 1991 Building Act (we are now operating under the 2004 version) so it goes back a long way, but it is not very well known or utilised. It can only be used by people or organisations that have an interest in the building work in question, including Councils, property owners, Licensed Building Practitioners (LBPs), and in some cases neighbours.
