KEY POINTS:
Rodney Hide, the new Minister of Local Government, has called for a streamlining of building consent, comparing times past when three inspections were sufficient to receive a sign-off on your home compared with now, when a house may require up to 18 inspections.
However, it is not without a degree of irony that the same week Mr Hide called for a reduction in building inspections, the Department of Building and Housing released news that two manufacturers of trusses and beams were being investigated for supplying products made with substandard timber.
These deficient but critically important items for a house were manufactured and installed in spite of the plethora of inspections houses being built have to undergo. Clearly the substandard items must have been picked up at one of the inspection points that Mr Hide wishes to remove.
The Home Owners and Buyers Association of New Zealand is dealing with more than 3000 homeowners who are directly suffering from the results of poor design and workmanship on homes signed off by councils. There are estimates of between 30,000 and 80,000 leaky homes with a potential bill of billions of dollars. Meanwhile, the personal cost to homeowners from these poor-quality homes through ill-health, stress and time lost sorting problems is very real.
In fact, we understand that homes are still being built that have problems that will become apparent in years to come.
These homes, especially those built after the Building Act 2004, had numerous inspections and yet they, too, were deemed built sufficiently well to receive a Code Compliance Certificate.
Many in the industry blame the prescriptive nature of the Building Act 2004, enacted to try to prevent a repeat of the leaky homes scandal a scandal that has everyone from designers to architects, builders to councils and the Government ducking for cover.
Councils are unfairly blamed for delays and costs in building because of requirements for detailed building consent applications, inspections to ensure work at each stage is done properly and an increasing tightening of standards. Although the revised Building Act has been in place for more than four years, some architects and builders are still finding difficulty with the rigorous paperwork required for consent applications.
The introduction of new standards will always create frustrations, but it is not necessarily the standards that give rise to the frustrations experienced by the industry - it is the application of those standards in a consistent and efficient manner that is essential.
So, here we are in a situation where the building industry is in crisis, people are looking to reduce costs, poor workmanship and design is still taking place, substandard products are still being used and homeowners are being left to carry the burden of mistakes from the past while the Government and councils use litigation to minimise their exposure to the cost of remedying these problems.
The new Minister of Local Government has called for a reduction in inspections to reduce the cost of building and for homeowners to be allowed to make changes to their own home. If there are no controls over the work, who will be responsible for these alterations once a property is sold?
We think it laudable that the minister should be attempting to make it more affordable for people to be able to build new homes or renovate existing homes through a reduction in compliance costs. However, the focus must remain on the quality of our housing stock and a strong regulatory environment.
Procedures must be smartened up as opposed to the standards being "dumbed" down.
The dilemma is in finding the best balance between quality control over design and construction that under the Building Act is the ultimate responsibility of councils (as building consent authorities) for whom the minister is responsible. We look forward to working with the minister to help achieve that balance.
John Gray is president of the Home Owners and Buyers Association of New Zealand.
