BCA Accreditation Programme Welcome to Newsletter #7.

Inside this issue

Electronic Signatures 1

Reg 17(4)(b) - Quality Assurance by Contractors 2

BCAs observing IANZ Assessments 2

Racking Systems need Building Consent 3

Statutory Timeframe Compliance 3

Conditions on Consents 4

MBIE Guidance

Record of Works and Issue of CCC 5

Inspection prior to issuing CCC on historic consents 5

Information Required on Forms 6

Form 5—Compliance Schedule Requirement 7

Clarification: RFI’s 7

BCA Professional Advisory Committee 8

Contact Us 8

We hope you enjoy the latest issue from the BCA Accreditation

Team. Inside this issue you will find topics such as information on

BCAs observing IANZ assessments building consent requirements

for racking systems, required information for Forms and the latest

guidance updates from MBIE, including some clarification on the

RFI content from newsletter #6. We also introduce you to our BCA

Professional Advisory Committee.

A tip for you on this new format — you‟ll see the contents table is

listed below. Each subject is hyperlinked so if you are reading this

electronically, you can just click on the section you want to read

first!

If there is a topic you wish to be discussed in a future newsletter or

have any questions about any item in this issue, let us know.

December 2015

No. 7

Acceptance of electronic signatures or other indications of approval on electronic

documents

Many documents including Building Consent and Code Compliance Certificate applications are now received with typed names, digitally verified signatures or inserted pictures of signatures.

It has been determined that these can be accepted in good faith, if they are received via email or a secure portal as there are reasonable grounds to accept that the transaction is genuine. If received by other means (e.g. email), there is a trail of communication which can also legally hold ground.

It is recommended that BCAs consider adding a checkbox/tick for a terms & conditions statement/disclaimer to state that submitted content is a true record on Building Consent and Code Compliance Certificate applications intended to be accepted electronically.

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BCAs observing

IANZ assessments

IANZ has received queries from a number of BCAs as to whether they would be able to send staff members to observe an IANZ BCA assessment. In most cases, IANZ is happy to include individuals from within other BCAs as an assessment observer. This would however require agreement between the two BCA’s and all costs are borne by the BCA wishing to send the individual to observe. Note that usual practice is to have only one extra person at an assessment and there are circumstances where there will already be an observer attending so another might not be appropriate. Please contact IANZ for further details

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Regulation 17(4)(b): Quality Assurance demonstrated by Contractors. Quality assurance demonstrated by contractors who are performing building control functions is often misunderstood. Quality assurance is sometimes provided by a contractor working within the BCA’s quality system. In this situation the contractor is required to use the BCA’s Quality System and documentation, have an up-to-date competency assessment if appropriate, (possibly provided by the contractor or performed by the BCA), be included on the skills matrix and have an up-to-date Training Plan. Some specialist contractors could demonstrate their technical competencies without using a competency assessment however, they would appear on the skills matrix and would have a Training Plan to ensure they are kept up-to-date with changes to the BCA’s quality system, legislation etc. The work these contractors perform for the BCA will be monitored by the in-house quality system audits. Quality System audits of all technical processes would include review of their work including both the following of the BCA’s procedures and the appropriateness of technical outcomes. Alternatively, the BCA could have a separate programme of technical review audits to meet this requirement. Technical work performed by a contractor working outside the in-house technical competencies, needs to be reviewed periodically by someone with appropriate comparable technical competencies. Where the contractor is not included in the BCA’s quality system, the requirement is for the BCA to review and agree to what quality assurance systems contractors will have in place in their (the contractor’s) organisation. Contractors that are large organisations will often have quality assurance certification of some sort — for example ISO/IEC 9001. Some small organisations may have no formal quality assurance system in place; in that situation the BCA and the contractor are required to determine an agreed level of quality assurance whatever that may be. The agreement may include that the contractor will be internally audited or any other proposal that the BCA and the contractor agree to. The contractor’s compliance with the agreed to level of quality assurance can be reviewed along with other BCA requirements during performance review of the contractor.

December 2015

No. 7

Racking Systems and the requirement to apply for a building consent

It has recently become apparent that

some providers of racking systems

are asserting that there is no

requirement to apply for a building

consent for the installation of their

racking systems.

Note that in many cases, installation

of racking will alter the functioning of

the fire protection systems and

therefore the work does require a

building consent.

Compliance with Statutory Timeframes

During IANZ assessments we review BCAs compliance with statutory timeframes and look to see if the BCA is achieving full compliance as required by the Building Act. If the BCA is less than fully compliant IANZ looks to see if the BCA is investigating and recording the reason for any exception to compliance, including the remedy to ensure the exception is not going to reoccur. The only accepted reasons are unpredictable and extreme events. Normal levels of staff illness and annual leave are not considered acceptable or un-manageable. Where a BCA has not been achieving full compliance, IANZ may in some circumstances determine that the BCA nearly (substantially) complies. That decision will be based on numerous contributing factors such as (but not limited to) whether the BCA is effectively implementing all other quality system functions and whether there have been or are about to be any critical changes to the quality system. The decision will not be based solely on the level of compliance that the BCA has been achieving.

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December 2015

No. 7

Conditions on Consents

MBIE has previous provided guidance regarding

conditions that can be added to a Building Consent.

These are:

Section 37 of the Act requires a TA to not permit building

work to proceed if a required resource consent has not

been obtained.

Section 67 of the Act allows a BCA (that is a TA) to

impose any appropriate conditions on a waiver or

modification to a building consent.

Section 73 requires a BCA (that is a TA) to include as a condition of the building consent

the requirement to notify the consent to those persons applicable that are listed in section

73(1)(a), (b) and (c)

Section 76 requires a TA to state in a PIM that as a condition of the grant of a building

consent, one ore more of the allotments specified by the TA must not be transferred or

leased except in conjunction with any specified other or others of those allotments. In

practice this condition is in the form of a certificate that must be lodged with the Register

General of Land (refer to section 77).

Section 90 states that every building consent is subject to the condition that agents

authorised by the BCA are entitled to inspect building work (subject to the other

requirements in section 90). This can also mean that where the building work requires a

third party to certify that the building work complies with the plans and specifications then

this could be conditioned as a part of the building consent.

For example:

an accredited body is required to verify the installation of an alarm system designed

and installed to NZS 4512:2010

energy works certificates are required from appropriate people (licensed electricians

and gasfitters)

verification from the design engineer (or an appropriately qualified person) to confirm

an assumption made in the engineering calculations for the foundation design.

This means that the BCA can add conditions to a consent for both inspections to be

performed by council inspectors and for any ―Third Party Inspections‖ such as inspections

by engineers.

Section 113 of the act requires a TA to grant a building consent for a building with a

specified intended life subject to (a) the condition that the building must be altered, removed

or demolished on or before the end of the specified life and (b) any other conditions that it

considered necessary.

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December 2015

No. 7

Record of Works and Issue of Code Compliance Certificates

MBIE clarifies as follows:

“The Building Act provides for the issuance of a Code Compliance Certificate where there is no „applicable‟ Record of Work (RoW) included with the application. Where a RoW is not included it is the Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP) that is in breach of the Building Act”.

The BCA must issue the CCC if the BCA has satisfied itself on reasonable grounds that the building complies with the Building Act and Code. The BCA should make a complaint to the board against the LBP for failing to supply a RoW.

See determination 2014/021, section 4.2

Inspection prior to issuing a Code Compliance Certificate (CCC) on historic consents where there has been no application for a CCC.

This clarification was first established in April 2013, but it may be helpful to repeat the advice from MBIE. To paraphrase, it is not mandatory to undertake an inspection before refusing to issue or deciding to issue a CCC on historic consents (i.e. 2 years or more after granting of the building consent) where no application has been made for a CCC. It may be the easiest way to establish Building Code compliance but this is not always possible or relevant. Any action taken should be appropriate to the circumstances and the decision, reason for decision and outcome of the decision should be recorded. Owners shall be notified of the decision.

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MBIE Guidance

December 2015

No. 7

Information Required on Forms

MBIE has acknowledged that the prescribed forms as they are documented in the Forms Regulations are not currently always fit for purpose, especially in light of the current impetus of the BCAs to shift to an online consent application. At present MBIE consider it would be prudent for them to hold off making changes to any form while BCAs work their way through their online issues, at which time MBIE will work with the BCAs in developing forms that best fit the electronic world. Therefore MBIE won’t make immediate changes to the Forms Regulations and these stand in law for the present. However, during this time of transition, MBIE have asked IANZ to take a pragmatic approach to the forms requirements and not place undue emphasis on the acceptance of forms by BCAs where those forms are not complete in their entirety as long as the missing items do not provide any value to the BCA.

Forms can be electronic or in hard copy. IANZ will accept the information required by the Forms Regulations presented in any order as long as it is logical (i.e. all important information on building consents should be recorded before advice notes). Required items generally include details such as: the owner, the building work, information regarding specified systems, Current Lawfully Established Use and Year First Constructed, as applicable to the form. Generally IANZ will make a finding when these items are missing.

In particular, ―Current Lawfully Established Use‖ and ―Year First Constructed‖ should be specified

on Form 2 for existing dwellings as they are appropriate information to assist the BCA in processing the consent application. It is recommended that the ―Currently Lawfully Established Use‖ is specified using the ―Classified Uses‖ (Building Regulations 1992 Clause A1 – Classified

Uses).

Intended use should also be provided for new building applications to assist the BCA to consider the limitations of the building code on that building classification—for example the ―Classified Use‖ ―Detached Dwelling‖ clarifies the limitation of not requiring features for access

and facilities for persons with disabilities in housing.

If all ―critical‖ information is present on a Form, but minor information such as fax numbers, email addresses and websites are not, then IANZ will not raise a finding. If ―critical‖ information is absent a CAR may be raised.

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December 2015

No. 7

Form 5: “A Compliance

Schedule is/is not required for the

building.”

This requirement is often not addressed appropriately. The Form 5 requires the BCA to always address this question. When the consent is an alteration to an existing building and there is already a Compliance Schedule for that building for which there is to be no alteration, the Form 5 must still indicate that a Compliance Schedule is required for that building. The Building Consent can include an additional statement to clarify — such as “There is an existing Compliance Schedule — No. XXX”.

Clarification: Requests for Further Information(RFI) Newsletter #6 provided the following information from MBIE regarding stopping and starting the clock for RFIs (see 8.):

“Regarding interpretation of Section 48 of the Building Act in respect to starting and stopping the clock, MBIE have indicated that the clock should not be restarted until the BCA has checked that they have received all information regarding each of the topics in the RFI(s).”

There has been lots of conversations on this topic so we think some further guidance may be helpful:

When reviewing received ―Further Information‖ for suitability, if any or all of the items received are either obviously incorrect or absent the clock does not start.

The BCA will most likely wish to contact the applicant to ensure the incorrect items are sent correctly and that all required items are forwarded.

The BCA may wish to process the correct items already received if, in their professional judgement, they can make progress while the clock remains off.

If all requested items are present and they are all looking useful then the clock should be restarted.

IANZ suggests that BCAs let customers know exactly when the clock will be stopped and started.

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December 2015

No. 7

The Professional Advisory Committee is made up of representatives from the industry sector and is an IANZ process developed to advise IANZ on matters that relate to the industry group. Representatives are appointed by invitation to ensure that the committee represents a wide range of stakeholders. The Building Consent Authority Programme Professional Advisory Committee includes individuals from Building Consent Authorities, an independent Technical Expert and a representative from the Regulator.

Current members are Peter Laurenson (Chair), Merv Balloch, Brent Goldschmidt, Kelvin Newman, John Tait, Rose McLaughlan, Peter Sparrow and Dave Gittings. IANZ contributors are not members but attend by invitation. Representing IANZ are Dr Llewellyn Richards (Chief Executive Officer), Phil Barnes (General Manager Accreditation Services), Adrienne Woollard (Programme Manager), Asses-sors - Carolyn Osborne (Building Programme Champion), Peter Wakefield and Geoff Hallam (Technical Development & Regulatory Affairs Manager) and Coordination Officer, Alexis Brook. Because the role of the PAC is to advise IANZ on matters that relate to the industry, it is a forum to discuss items the industry group want raised. If there is a matter anyone wants dis-cussed in this forum, please feel free to contact: Adrienne Woollard,, Carolyn Osborne or info@ianz.govt.nz

Either Adrienne or Carolyn will then ensure it is discussed with the BCAPAC and will then communicate the outcome of the discussion.

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Role of the Building Consent Authority Programme Professional Advisory Committee (BCAPAC)

Any Questions?

Email: info@ianz.govt.nz Ph: 09 525 6655 Web: www.ianz.govt.nz

December 2015

No. 7