Skip to content.
Return to Department of Building and Housing home page.

Key findings of the review

16 - Case studies of completed buildings

Purpose

To examine the effectiveness of the Council's consent and inspection processes and to suggest improvements. The findings of case studies often reflect and reinforce the more general review findings outlined under the other terms of reference.

Background

The Department identified a number of buildings that had recently been processed by the Council and had progressed to code compliance certificate stage (although some case studies involved buildings that were still in the construction phase). These buildings were chosen to be typical of the building type that the Council deals with and also to involve compliance elements that are known to be difficult (such as access for people with disabilities or weathertightness of monolithic claddings).

The findings of the case studies were used to support and reinforce the more general review findings outlined under the other terms of reference.

Initial review

During the initial review the review team conducted 14 case studies of completed buildings and from these noted a number of ways the Council could improve its building control activities. The main issues noted in the initial review were the Council:

  • was not consistently rejecting consent applications lacking sufficient detail and evidence to ensure compliance with the Building Code
  • was not identifying non-compliant details in the consent application during processing. The main areas of non-compliance related to weathertightness, accessibility compliance, fire design and lateral bracing
  • lacked a formal procedure by which to record the basis for determining Code compliance
  • consent processing and inspection activities were characterised by a lack of formal process and documentation. This was evidenced by missed or undocumented inspections and a lack of follow up to ensure consent conditions had been achieved.
Recommendations to and actions taken by the Council
Recommendations made to the Council Action taken by the Council before the follow-up review

Improvements were required in:

  • procedures for dealing with consent applications with insufficient information
  • processing and inspection methodology to ensure compliance is consistently achieved for all clauses in the Building Code, with particular attention being given to improving Code compliance of accessibility and weathertightness details
  • documentation of consent processing and inspection activities, including implementation of appropriate checklists, ensuring consent conditions are achieved and documenting how the Council was satisfied on reasonable grounds that Code compliance was, or would be, achieved for all building construction elements
  • processes underpinning key components of the Council's building control operations such as how it assesses and makes decisions on alternative solutions and considers and checks producer statements
  • developing training programmes that lift technical knowledge.
The Council introduced a number of initiatives as discussed under other terms of reference above.

Follow-up review

The follow-up review identified that some of the findings of the initial review were still relevant and that other issues of note had emerged. In summary, the Department found the Council:

  • was still accepting building consent applications lacking sufficient detail and evidence to ensure compliance with the Building Code
  • inspection activities were still characterised by a general lack of formal process and documentation. In particular, it was found that the Council was not adequately documenting all relevant information on inspection sheets and that some inspections that should have been required were not being undertaken
  • did not adequately identify requirements under other legislation during project information memoranda processing. In particular, approved PIMs were not identifying the requirement to obtain an Evacuation Scheme as required under the Fire Services Act 1975
  • approved a number of non-compliant features in buildings it was assessing. In particular, non-compliance was occurring in access and facilities for people with disabilities, in the provision of exit signage and the assessment of fire compliance.
Recommendations to and response from the Council
Recommendations to the Council Response from the Council

Continue to work on implementing the recommendations identified throughout this report. In particular, the Council should work to:

  • improve its consent procedures to ensure applications with insufficient supporting information are consistently rejected at the vetting stage
  • develop a more robust inspection methodology to ensure reasons and justification for decisions are consistently recorded
  • improve levels of compliance with the Building Code, particularly in relation to access for people with disabilities and fire compliance.
The Council advised that many of the issues raised have been addressed. They include documented policies, procedures and processes, new forms and checklists, which have been developed as part of Council's preparations to be accredited as a building consent authority.

Conclusion

The key findings of the case studies undertaken are reflected throughout the report. Due to the level of non-compliance identified during both reviews, the Department considers that ongoing work is required to minimise this. While the Council has advised this has been (and is) occurring as part of its preparation for accreditation as a building consent authority, and occurred after the follow-up review visit, the Department did not assess such work.