NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Shoddily-built house ordered demolished after builder forged inspection reports

Jeremy Wilkinson
By Jeremy Wilkinson
Open Justice multimedia journalist, Palmerston North·NZ Herald·
21 Nov, 2022 04:31 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Tunnel crash injures seven, FIFA continues threats & deadly earthquake in Indonesia | Focus Morning Bulletin 22 November, 2022
Wrong-way motorway collision, big changes on the horizon for L&P and deadly earthquake rocks Indonesia in the latest New Zealand Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald ...
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
0:00
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time -0:00
 
1x
    • Chapters
    • descriptions off, selected
    • captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
    • captions off, selected

      This is a modal window.

      Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.

      Text
      Text Background
      Caption Area Background
      Font Size
      Text Edge Style
      Font Family

      End of dialog window.

      This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.

      Herald NOW Weather: June 27, 2025

      UP NEXT:

      Autoplay in
      3
      Disable Autoplay
      Cancel Video
      Wrong-way motorway collision, big changes on the horizon for L&P and deadly earthquake rocks Indonesia in the latest New Zealand Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald
      NOW PLAYING • Tunnel crash injures seven, FIFA continues threats & deadly earthquake in Indonesia | Focus Morning Bulletin 22 November, 2022
      Wrong-way motorway collision, big changes on the horizon for L&P and deadly earthquake rocks Indonesia in the latest New Zealand Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald ...

      A builder who forged council inspection reports, glued bolts in place to make it look like they were properly fixed and used another builder’s licence without their permission, has been struck off and ordered to pay $4500.

      Ting Xie’s work was so bad that one of the houses he worked on had to be entirely demolished, while another had to have the cladding stripped off and redone.

      He has since left the country and his Otago-based company, Lakeside Construction Ltd, has gone into liquidation.

      One inspector described his work as “one of the most error-ridden properties I have ever supervised in 27 years” and that Xie was simply “out of his depth”.

      Advertisement
      Advertise with NZME.
      Advertisement
      Advertise with NZME.

      However, the Building Practitioners Board went a step further and said his conduct lacked integrity and brought the entire profession into disrepute.

      Problems first arose at an address in Queenstown where a council building consent officer attended the site multiple times, identifying issues with the cladding, retaining wall, and foundation slab, and refused to sign them off until they were fixed.

      Xie made none of the changes he was required to and failed another pre-clad inspection because he’d done nothing to rectify the issues outlined in the first report.

      He called a final inspection, which the council also failed him on, and then tried to rebook it by attempting to contact different inspectors.

      Advertisement
      Advertise with NZME.
      Some of the evidence supplied to the Building Practitioner's Board. Photo / LBP
      Some of the evidence supplied to the Building Practitioner's Board. Photo / LBP

      The consenting officer - whose name was redacted by the Board in its decision - said he thought Xie was out of his depth, did not understand what the council was asking him to do, and had a mindset that this was the way he’d done things in Auckland without issue.

      Ultimately the cladding had to be entirely removed and redone at a cost to the owner.

      However, the most serious offending occurred at an address in Wanaka where Xie worked.

      There the consent officer saw double stacking of floor joists, cantilever beams without bolts, bolts cut off instead of drilling through the steel beams, and even one bolt that had been glued on to give the impression it had been fixed in place.

      The officer said there had been “total disregard for structural details” and that while each issue individually could have been fixed, added together it was “insurmountable”.

      The council inspector said the problems together were "insurmountable". Photo / LBP
      The council inspector said the problems together were "insurmountable". Photo / LBP

      The council’s inspection report noted that “… it is not known whether this building has sufficient structural integrity to resist imposed forces from strong winds and/or seismic activity”, and subsequently issued a notice-to-fix order.

      Before Xie could make any of the required fixes the property was sold and the council ordered that as a condition of sale the property be demolished.

      It was also found that Xie used failed council inspection reports from a different construction project that he’d altered to say had passed.

      He presented these false documents as evidence to say he’d passed inspections for plumbing and drainage as well as framing and bracing for the property in Wanaka.

      Read More

      • New law to weed out 'cowboy' builders
      • Noose tightens on city's cowboy builders...
      • Cowboy builder who tipped concrete down storm water ...
      • Govt after cowboy builders - Whanganui Chronicle News ...

      The inspecting officer told the board that these documents had had the address and building consent number altered to match the Wanaka project.

      Advertisement
      Advertise with NZME.

      Xie also presented another builder’s licence to inspectors when they came for another visit, telling them that he was overseeing the work.

      That builder told the board he had no involvement with the property and didn’t know why his name was associated with it all.

      He said he’d been contracted by Xie to do some consulting work and gave him a photocopy of his Licensed Building Practitioner’s licence at Xie’s request.

      In its decision the board said Xie’s behaviour across the two projects showed a lack of integrity and repeated deliberate conduct.

      Xie was described as being "out of his depth" by one inspector. Photo / LBP
      Xie was described as being "out of his depth" by one inspector. Photo / LBP

      “In particular, the board notes the use and production of another Licensed Building Practitioner’s [LBP] licence, the production of falsified documents for the purposes of payment from the homeowner, the booking of further council inspections when required remedial work had not been done, and the failure to address the issues in the council’s notice to fix.

      “His conduct has resulted in one homeowner having to reclad their house and the other selling the property with the council requirement that the building be demolished.”

      Advertisement
      Advertise with NZME.

      Overall Xie was found to have committed six offences across two building projects.

      “His actions showed a cavalier attitude to his legal obligations,” the board said.

      “It was evident that he lacked the skills and knowledge required to be a licensed building practitioner.”

      As a final note the board referenced its own limitations in that Xie only obtained his licence in 2020. Some of the building work at both of the properties was undertaken before he was licensed.

      However, the board can only investigate breaches by Licensed Building Practitioners.

      Save

        Share this article

      Latest from New Zealand

      New ZealandUpdated

      Homicide investigation launched after alleged attack at South Auckland property

      29 Jun 09:07 PM
      Premium
      Property

      'Not much': $7200 fine for landlords breaching healthy homes standards too low

      29 Jun 09:00 PM
      New Zealand

      Fruit and veg chat: Best buys this season

      Engage and explore one of the most remote places on Earth in comfort and style

      sponsored
      Advertisement
      Advertise with NZME.
      Recommended for you
      A year of Sun(shine): How Lulu Sun has changed NZ tennis ahead of Wimbledon tilt
      Tennis

      A year of Sun(shine): How Lulu Sun has changed NZ tennis ahead of Wimbledon tilt

      29 Jun 09:00 PM
      Luxon issues warning to judiciary, vows to enforce tough new sentencing laws
      Politics

      Luxon issues warning to judiciary, vows to enforce tough new sentencing laws

      29 Jun 08:53 PM
      From early mornings to easy living
      Sponsored Stories

      From early mornings to easy living

      29 Jun 08:41 PM
      Bus and minibus collision in Tanzania kills 38, injures 28
      World

      Bus and minibus collision in Tanzania kills 38, injures 28

      29 Jun 08:36 PM
      Trump says wealthy buyers lined up for TikTok amid US-China tensions
      World

      Trump says wealthy buyers lined up for TikTok amid US-China tensions

      29 Jun 08:28 PM

      Latest from New Zealand

      Homicide investigation launched after alleged attack at South Auckland property

      Homicide investigation launched after alleged attack at South Auckland property

      29 Jun 09:07 PM

      The incident occurred on Beatty St, Ōtāhuhu, around 8.30pm on Sunday.

      Premium
      'Not much': $7200 fine for landlords breaching healthy homes standards too low

      'Not much': $7200 fine for landlords breaching healthy homes standards too low

      29 Jun 09:00 PM
      Fruit and veg chat: Best buys this season

      Fruit and veg chat: Best buys this season

      Luxon issues warning to judiciary, vows to enforce tough new sentencing laws
      live

      Luxon issues warning to judiciary, vows to enforce tough new sentencing laws

      29 Jun 08:53 PM
      There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently
      sponsored

      There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

      NZ Herald
      • About NZ Herald
      • Meet the journalists
      • Newsletters
      • Classifieds
      • Help & support
      • Contact us
      • House rules
      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms of use
      • Competition terms & conditions
      • Our use of AI
      Subscriber Services
      • NZ Herald e-editions
      • Daily puzzles & quizzes
      • Manage your digital subscription
      • Manage your print subscription
      • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
      • Subscribe to Herald Premium
      • Gift a subscription
      • Subscriber FAQs
      • Subscription terms & conditions
      • Promotions and subscriber benefits
      NZME Network
      • The New Zealand Herald
      • The Northland Age
      • The Northern Advocate
      • Waikato Herald
      • Bay of Plenty Times
      • Rotorua Daily Post
      • Hawke's Bay Today
      • Whanganui Chronicle
      • Viva
      • NZ Listener
      • Newstalk ZB
      • BusinessDesk
      • OneRoof
      • Driven Car Guide
      • iHeart Radio
      • Restaurant Hub
      NZME
      • About NZME
      • NZME careers
      • Advertise with NZME
      • Digital self-service advertising
      • Book your classified ad
      • Photo sales
      • NZME Events
      • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
      TOP
      search by queryly Advanced Search