9 - Compliance schedules and the building warrant of fitness regime

Purpose

To evaluate the effectiveness of the Council's compliance schedule and building warrant of fitness (BWoF) regimes.

Background

Buildings containing certain safety features and essential building systems, such as sprinklers and lifts, require a compliance schedule. The owner of the building must ensure continued effective operation of those features and systems, and demonstrate it by holding a current BWoF. The Building Act 2004 imposes responsibilities on building owners and the territorial authority when the use of a building is to be changed, when that change of use requires alterations to the building in order to bring the building into compliance with the Building Code (sections 108-111).¹⁵

Initial review

At this time, the Council had 919 BWoFs, of which 855 were current (93 percent compliance). A full-time compliance officer managed BWoF compliance.

The Council was proactive in promoting the owner's responsibility for advising the Council when a change of the use to a building occurs. At the time it was noted that the Council was experiencing a high incidence of people breaching the change of use requirements of the Act.

Recommendations to the Council	Action taken by the Council before the follow-up review
Implement a system to identify all buildings that may require a compliance schedule or changes to an existing compliance schedule before a code compliance certificate is issued.	The Council began implementing a Pathways computer system to assist with this activity.
Reassess the compliance schedule and BWoF regimes from the perspective of workload on current staff.	The Council did not implement this recommendation.

Follow-up review

The Council advised that the new Pathways computer system being introduced will help identify buildings requiring a compliance schedule at the time of building consent application and will not allow a code compliance certificate to be issued until a compliance schedule is issued. However, because the system was still under development, the manual system of placing a red sheet in a building consent application that requires a compliance schedule was still in operation.

15 Previously covered under section 46 of the Building Act 1991

Recommendations to the Council	Response from the Council
Ensure the Pathways system it is implementing identifies all buildings that may require a compliance schedule or changes to an existing compliance schedule before a code compliance certificate is issued.	While the compliance schedule system is still a manual one, changes are being undertaken to ensure compliance schedules are captured and monitored in the new Pathways computer system.
Ensure staff undertaking its BWoF functions are provided adequate training opportunities.	These recommendations are being addressed as part of the Council's comprehensive training and development framework.
Provide training in the use of the new system to BWoF staff.

Conclusion