House building and inspections: Target property cowboys not the system
It is truly buyer beware. That's why the Building Officials Institute of New Zealand established a robust Accredited Building Surveyor (ABS) programme for pre-purchase property inspections – to stop the cowboys.
We need to see better standards, minimum qualifications and mandatory indemnity insurance for the sector to better protect Kiwis purchasing their biggest asset.
A week ago, Herald NOW interviewed Master Builders chief executive Ankit Sharma, who commented that 'it takes 19 months to build a house from the time consent is given to the code of compliance given ... even for simple homes sometimes 14 to 15 inspections'.
But there are also multiple influences on the length of time involved in building a house, whether it is 12 months or 24 months. This includes land purchase and transfer of title, design time and adjustments, design application – anywhere from a week to 20 days depending on the quality of designs – material supply problems, capacity of building companies and skilled labour availability, failed inspections and final sign-off.
Additionally, if a house needed 14 to 15 inspections, something is terribly wrong and those inspections are well and truly deserved to protect building compliance, building safety and the owner's investment.
Some councils run between six to eight inspections and Auckland runs 10 as standard. They cover foundations, wrapped cavity, cladding, pre-line, plumbing, post-line, waterproofing, drainage and final.
Auckland has a 25% inspection failure rate and Tauranga up to a 50% failure rate. So, 14 to 15 inspections is comparatively good if the Master Builders are that bad.
We are awaiting the Government's announcement on major reforms to the building consent system. This may include restructuring our Building Consent Authorities, who are there to safeguard homeowners from defective work. The self-certification of builders would remove existing protections for homeowners.
That's a worry given the extremely high rates of non-compliant building design applications and inspection failures – 80% and 50% respectively, according to 2023 Model-Docs.
Let's hope Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk makes the right decision – to target the cowboys, not the system.
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NZ Herald
11 hours ago
- NZ Herald
House building and inspections: Target property cowboys not the system
Anyone who is so minded can set themselves up as a pre-purchase inspector and produce reports – and often it's uncertified builders who make the mistakes in the first place. It is truly buyer beware. That's why the Building Officials Institute of New Zealand established a robust Accredited Building Surveyor (ABS) programme for pre-purchase property inspections – to stop the cowboys. We need to see better standards, minimum qualifications and mandatory indemnity insurance for the sector to better protect Kiwis purchasing their biggest asset. A week ago, Herald NOW interviewed Master Builders chief executive Ankit Sharma, who commented that 'it takes 19 months to build a house from the time consent is given to the code of compliance given ... even for simple homes sometimes 14 to 15 inspections'. But there are also multiple influences on the length of time involved in building a house, whether it is 12 months or 24 months. This includes land purchase and transfer of title, design time and adjustments, design application – anywhere from a week to 20 days depending on the quality of designs – material supply problems, capacity of building companies and skilled labour availability, failed inspections and final sign-off. Additionally, if a house needed 14 to 15 inspections, something is terribly wrong and those inspections are well and truly deserved to protect building compliance, building safety and the owner's investment. Some councils run between six to eight inspections and Auckland runs 10 as standard. They cover foundations, wrapped cavity, cladding, pre-line, plumbing, post-line, waterproofing, drainage and final. Auckland has a 25% inspection failure rate and Tauranga up to a 50% failure rate. So, 14 to 15 inspections is comparatively good if the Master Builders are that bad. We are awaiting the Government's announcement on major reforms to the building consent system. This may include restructuring our Building Consent Authorities, who are there to safeguard homeowners from defective work. The self-certification of builders would remove existing protections for homeowners. That's a worry given the extremely high rates of non-compliant building design applications and inspection failures – 80% and 50% respectively, according to 2023 Model-Docs. Let's hope Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk makes the right decision – to target the cowboys, not the system.
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- NZ Herald
Can't see the sheep for the trees: 10 years, 100,000 hectares and $900m of foreign forestry conversions - mapped.
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