Northland building practitioner's licence cancelled

Three building practitioner's have been investigated in Northland for breaches of the home Building Act 2004 in the last five years.

Three Northland building practitioners have been investigated in the past five years, including a carpenter who had his licence cancelled for undertaking work beyond his competency and failing to secure a building consent.

The Building Practitioners' Board has ordered Grant Tromp to pay costs of $2000 and reduced the cancellation of his builder's licence from three months to one month.
He was cited for three breaches of the Building Act 2004.

A homeowner engaged Mr Tromp to carry out renovations to the kitchen and to extend and enclose the house's existing porch into a new room.

He also undertook design work which was beyond his competency as a carpentry licensed building practitioner.

The board's initial view was his licence be cancelled for three months as the breaches were serious and that it was necessary to send a signal such conduct was unacceptable.

Mr Tromp said the penalty was harsh and would impact on his ability to work and meet his financial obligations.

He said the homeowner he did work for should shoulder some of the responsibility for failure to obtain a resource consent and non-compliance work.

But the board said Mr Tromp has not been found to have committed an offence by not obtaining a building consent.

"The Act may stipulate that the owner has certain responsibilities but the board's focus is the licensed building practitioner's (LBP) conduct and their responsibilities under the Act which includes ensuring building work that requires a building consent is consented before it is commenced."

Mr Tromp admitted he had a limited knowledge of the Building Code and would have to upskill.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's Registrar of Building Practitioner Licensing Paul Hobbs said the board took breaches of the Act seriously.

"If building consent had been properly sought, it would be clear this was outside the parameters of Mr Tromp's scope of work as a carpentry LBP, as this type of work requires an LBP with a design building licence.

"This decision should send a very clear message that the board will hold LBPs to their legal obligations of only carrying out work within their area of competence and obtaining building consents where required," Mr Hobbs said.

The board said it had completed three investigations in Northland relating to licensed building practitioners in the past five years.

One investigation led to a hearing in which Mr Tromp had his licence cancelled.

Another investigation led to a hearing where the licensed building practitioner, who was not named by the board in the decision, was disciplined for negligent or incompetent work and was fined. One investigation did not proceed to a hearing.

Nationally, 121 licensed building practitioners were disciplined in the last five years.