Raising the bar in residential construction

august - september 2021 Raising the bar on performance, quality and accountability in residential construction

The MBIE review includes managing risks to the health and safety of the public, and the financial risks to consumers if work is done poorly

The overarching objectives of the current MBIE review of the Licensed Building Practitioners (LBP) scheme are to ensure first that regulation under the scheme is proportionate to the risks to public safety and wellbeing.

It seeks to ensure that practitioners provide services with reasonable care and skill, operate within their areas and levels of expertise and can be held to account for substandard work and poor behaviour.

“We are strengthening our occupational regulation of so that New Zealanders can remain confident in LBPs and their work,” said Amy Moorhead, MBIE’s Building Policy Manager.

The LBP scheme was introduced in 2007 following an amendment to the Building Act, to help address gaps in the performance-based regulatory system that were exposed during the leaky homes crisis. It has not been reviewed as a whole since.

The LBP workforce and wider building system has continued to evolve and become more specialised, and demands on builders have increased.

The purpose of occupational regulation, including the LBP scheme, is to give people confidence in practitioners and their work and the regulations may not have kept up with the changes in the building sector, says MBIE .

The scheme makes an important contribution to safe and durable residential buildings but does not regulate the entire building profession, just licensed builders when they are carrying out or supervising restricted building work.

This only affects residential construction, and does not include commercial

construction, including most medium-to-large apartment buildings.

When MBIE consulted on strengthening the LBP scheme in 2019, building consent authorities, industry groups and some builders reported they do not have confidence in the scheme because the required competencies to be licensed are too low.

MBIE is currently seeking feedback from Licensed Building Practitioners and those who engage with them on three key elements of the scheme - the ability to supervise non-LBPs undertaking restricted building work, licensing classes and if the minimum standards of competency remain appropriate.

In September 2020, MBIE undertook targeted consultation on proposals to strengthen the LBP scheme, as part of the first set of changes. The issues addressed in the current plans will lead to the second set of changes.

The Government has agreed to strengthen the LBP scheme to introduce a code of ethics, improve the structure of the complaints and discipline model, to introduce independent investigators and to enhance the efficiency of the licensing administration process such as including a grace period for late renewals.

Minister for Building and Construction, Poto Williams says the Government is committed to working with the sector to improve regulation of the various professions within the sector “as we continue to advance the biggest changes to the Building Act since its inception.

“The sector is vital to New Zealand’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and a strong and robust LBP scheme is needed to provide assurance in practitioners and their work as we continue to improve the nation’s housing stock.

“The scheme ensures that building practitioners have the right skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours to carry out and supervise quality building work. This reduces health, safety and economic risks to homeowners from substandard building work,” she says.

The MBIE is currently reviewing feedback from a discussion document to a further three proposed changes to the Licensed Buildings Practitioners (LBP) scheme before reporting to parliament.

Changes to the LBP scheme that have already been approved

Introduce a code of ethics for LBPs to establish clear and concise behavioural requirements to manage poor ethical conduct

Amend the following licensing processes in the Building Act to ease the administrative burden of the scheme, by:

- moving the process for renewing licences from the Building Act to the LBP Rules - allowing for the licence term to be set in the LBP Rules, and prescribing the licence term to be no longer than five years in the Building Act - providing that the public register can distinguish between a licence that is not renewed by the due date and a licence that has been suspended due to disciplinary reasons, to improve clarity on the public register to support consumers to make more informed choices - allowing licences that are not renewed in a timely manner to be subject to a grace period, in which the LBP may renew the licence, and that this period will be specified in the LBP Rules - making it so a licence that is cancelled or suspended for a disciplinary order will stay recorded on the public register for three years - allowing the Board to take disciplinary action against LBPs who undertake restricted building work during the grace period.

Amend the complaints and disciplinary process in the Building Act to align with the Electricity Act 1992 to address issues around natural justice and fairness, by:

- separating the investigative and adjudicative functions in the complaints and disciplinary model by using independent investigators to undertake investigations, in order to clarify and strengthen the Board’s role as an impartial decision maker - granting the investigator powers to obtain and execute a warrant to enter land or premises for the purposes of investigating a complaint - granting the investigator powers to require a person provide any document or information that may be required, where necessary for the purposes of investigating a complaint, by written notice - allowing the Board to hold parts of meetings or hearings in private where it is appropriate due to the nature of the evidence - allowing the Board to amend an order of the Board where an administrative error has been made - allowing the Board to suspend an LBP’s licence should they fail to comply with a training order - allowing the Board to take disciplinary action against LBPs for carrying out or supervising building work without a building consent when one is required - making it an offence to not comply with a notice to supply the required document or information - improving the triaging powers of the LBP Registrar.