Govt after cowboy builders

Bringing the building industry out of the Wild West and licensing builders to protect themselves and the consumers remains unfinished business for the Government.

That's the view of Building and Construction Minister Maurice Williamson, who spoke to tradesmen and local authority inspectors in Wanganui yesterday.

Mr Williamson said when the new licensing practitioners regime came into effect from March 1 next year it would protect licensed builders and, importantly, home owners. The changes would also cut through what he described as a "sea of red tape that had stifled the industry up until now".

In cases in which the building was classified as a low risk, inspections by local authority building inspectors would be cut back. Likewise, there would be no need for builders erecting homes to an identical plan to seek repeat consents.

"The only consents they would have to get would be from the local authorities to cover ground works in that particular area," he said.

Another piece of legislation aimed at getting consumers better protection was a work in progress.

"You can get a warranty for a new TV or new car, and that's what we're trying to achieve here as far as a new home is concerned.

"I personally like the idea of a warranty where the builder pays a surety of, say, 1 per cent of the building costs, which gives the home owner the right to claim against the builder if anything goes wrong."

It offered protection if a builder "goes broke or leaves the country".

But the matter of builders' liability was a big issue, especially when the builder was caught with faulty work not of his doing. This area was difficult to resolve, and the Law Commission had been asked to do some work on it.

Mr Williamson said the industry had been mired in red tape.

"Much of this legislation is about cutting the practitioners some slack to do the work, as long as they are licensed to do the work that doesn't require constant monitoring."

He said there were huge variances across all the country's local authorities. "Is it right to have 74 interpretations of the same plan? I don't think so."

During the building boom in Auckland, homes had been built by people with no building experience.

"These are the people I want out of the industry ... we have to get away from the Wild West in our building industry.

"I'm angry at those who have built crap and then their company has folded, leaving the poor owner sitting in a wreck of a home."