Buildings prone to quake damage

Rotorua District Council building

Almost 1400 buildings in Rotorua could be prone to earthquake damage, according to a desktop analysis carried out by the Rotorua District Council.

However, building owners will need to engage a structural engineer to fully assess their properties before needing to carry out expensive alterations.

Council building services manager Darrell Holder told councillors at a meeting of the council's economic and regulatory services committee on Monday staff had almost completed a desktop analysis of Rotorua's building stocks.

Mr Holder said the council planned to pass risk assessment information to building owners in November so the council could "ensure building owners and the community is well informed and receive up to date and consistent information".

But, Mr Holder said it was difficult to know what was going to happen with changes to Building Act legislation currently going through Parliament regarding earthquake-prone buildings across the country.

"But, this does not necessarily mean these buildings are earthquake prone, they just require further assessment by a professional engineer."

He said the desktop assessment had nothing to do with the structural components of a building.

"A building is earthquake prone if it fails in a moderate earthquake. It is measured as one that's structural performance is less than 33 per cent of the new building standard."

Of the buildings assessed 631 were deemed to be of low risk, 626 were of medium risk and 69 at high risk.

The assessments do not include residential buildings unless they are two or more stories high and contain three or more household units.

Councillors expressed their concerns about how much it could cost building owners and how quickly the legislation could come into effect.

Mr Holder said initial assessments could cost between $500 and $1500, depending on size and complexity and new legislation was not expected to come into force until at least mid-2014, but probably not until early 2015.

He also said there was a shortage of qualified structural engineers in Rotorua which could become a problem.

He said it was not the Government pushing for structural testing, it was banks, insurance companies and tenants of buildings.

He urged building owners not to panic as desktop assessments only took into account the age, size, number of levels, number of occupants and building usage - which was why a structural assessment by a professional was required.