Building work exempt from building consent

At the beginning of August building work exempt from building consent changed with new or increased scope to serval areas, including;
· Verandas and porches
·  Single-storey detached buildings
·  Carports
·  Awnings
·  Outdoor fireplaces or ovens
·  Flexible water storage bladders
·  Short-span bridges on private land without public access
·  Pipe-supporting structures
·  Ground-mounted solar panel arrays
·  Single-storey pole sheds and hay barns

What building work is exempt?

Before starting building work, please refer to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) guidance document here.  This provides information on each Building Act exemption with context and examples of what is and is not exempt. 

Exempt building work must comply with the Building Code

After the building work is completed, if the building complied with the Building Code immediately before the work commenced, the building must continue to comply.  If the building did not comply immediately before the work began, the building must continue to comply at least to the same extent as it did previously (ie. you cannot make the building a lower standard than prior to commencing the work).

Exempt work must comply with the Resource Management Act

If you think your building work is exempt and want to check if you comply with District Plan requirements, please contact a duty planner via email at resourceconsent@qldc.govt.nz or on the phone at 03 441 0499 (Queenstown) and 03 443 0024 (Wānaka). 

Before starting any exempt building work;

1. Read the MBIE guidance document
2. Consult with a professional and/or contact QLDC
3. Check your plans are compliant with other relevant legislation
4. Check your plans and specifications are compliant with the Building Code
5. Consider notifying us when you have finished your project to update your property file

We have increased the scope of what we will consider of a Territorial Authority discretionary exemption to align with the changes.  You can see the changes to the criteria on the application form found here.

An update from Chris English

NZIA recently held a CPD event on ‘’Solving the trilemma that is building consenting’’.  Personally, I’m not sure we are ready to solve the trilemma, but it was good to hear different points of view and to discuss how we can work collaboratively in this space.  One item raised was the ‘silence time’ between acceptance and review by a building consent officer, and to that end I thought it would be useful to give you a quarterly average in each newsletter from this date forward.

Average time accept to review:

May to August 2020 – 10 working days

Building trends

We’ve lived through quite interesting times and continue to since the last newsletter.

In the financial year to 30 June, QLDC’s Building Services team processed consents with a value exceeding $1 billion dollars for the first time ever, and that figure includes three COVID-affected months.  The year before, we consented $850 million which was also a record at the time.  This just demonstrates how busy the whole building industry has been over the last two years.

The first two months of the new financial year have seen a reasonable July with 146 consents received, which was only 9% down on the monthly average of the previous three years with $60 million of consent value.  August dropped to 120 consents which was down 25%, but consent value totalled $67 million due to two large value commercial consents being processed.  The next couple of months will indicate where we are trending but industry feedback is that forward orders for 2021 are softening, and not unexpectedly.

Lastly, you will be aware our Inspections team is under significant pressure due to demand and obstacles in attracting Building Control Officers to Queenstown and Wānaka.  Timeframes for inspections have stretched out to approximately 12 working days for Wānaka and 10 working days for Queenstown, so please plan for these delays in advance when booking inspections.  We know that inspection demand will eventually decrease to follow consent numbers, but this will take time. In the meantime, we have employed two new Building Control Officers (thanks largely to the effects of COVID-19) and taken on an additional contractor for three days of the week.  We would like to see the benefits of this by mid to end of October with a reduction in inspection timeframes.  We appreciate your patience in the interim.  

Save on costs by reducing, reusing and recycling waste

Each new house construction generates up to five tonnes of waste, which is the equivalent of three to four standard 9m3 skip bins that end up in landfill.  This volume increases significantly when demolition is involved.  The good news is that much of this construction and demolition (C&D) waste can be reduced, reused or recycled, limiting wastage and saving on costs.  Here’s how to apply the three R’s in hierarchy.

1. Reduce, reduce, and reduce

Reduce waste in the first place through good design, planning and onsite work practises.  Deciding what and how to build, whether to demolish or renovate, and what materials and design specifications to use all impact on the type and amount of waste created during a project.  It’s at this early stage that there is the greatest opportunity to ensure waste reduction is an integral part of any project.

Some examples of this include preserving existing buildings rather than constructing new ones, using prefabricated and precut components wherever possible, avoiding over ordering of materials, and the use of construction methods that allow disassembly and facilitate the reuse of materials.

2. Reuse (or donate) materials in good condition

Reusing is the next best way to reduce waste, so before tossing all of your existing materials in a skip to be sent to a landfill, try giving these a new life by reusing or donating them.  And if you don’t have a use for them yourself, why not put them on CivilShare - the marketplace app for users to buy, sell, trade, and share resources.

3. Recycle what cannot be reused

A large portion of C&D waste can be recycled if it can’t be reused.  For example, concrete is often recycled into aggregate, untreated timber can be mulched, and metals can be melted down and reformed into new products.  Designate an area for onsite recycling of material and ensure there is clear signage on how to sort and store recyclables.  It may take a bit more time and space to establish but in the long run, diverting materials like cleanfill, scrap metal, clean cardboard, and green waste via the transfer stations in our district will save you money by comparison to landfilling this material.

The bottom line is with so many ways to limit the amount of C&D waste going to landfill, putting even a few strategies in place can dramatically limit wastage which is not only good for the planet, but also an opportunity for higher profitability.  The less you have to throw away, the more money you save on materials and disposal costs.

For practical tips on how to apply the 3 R’s, check out the comprehensive BRANZ Resource Efficiency in Building and Related Industries (REBRI) resources here.

New national water regulator

The news that there is to be a new regulator responsible for ensuring supplies of safe, clean drinking water for all New Zealand is an important step following the Havelock North campylobacter outbreak.   The new regulator and the new legislation will not only aim to prevent future outbreaks in a community, but it will also tackle the fractured system in place for the smaller suppliers and place requirements on every supply, unless you just supply your own household as a domestic self-supply.

The aim of the new legislation is for suppliers to have a drinking water safety plan which will be proportionate to the scale and complexity of the supply, and to identify risks to safety of the supply, bringing in the concept of a multi-barrier approach to drinking water safety.  This multi-barrier looks at the water from its raw beginning to the end, when it basically comes out of your tap.  One important part of this barrier approach is a treatment system, an example of this being UV disinfection and filters.

We will be seeing more in the news in the coming months, but in the meantime it is important to think about the safety of water supply, whether you supply it to others or to your own household. The best way to check the water is to collect a water sample and have it tested by an IANZ accredited lab.  It is important for microbial analysis to test for Total Coliforms, E.coli and Turbidity.  Chemical testing can be a little bit more complicated as it depends on your specific site and any historical land use, but we do know that there is a risk of naturally occurring arsenic in our water, so please ensure that you test for this.  Chemicals such as arsenic cannot be seen or tasted in water but it can have potentially severe health effects.  The new legislation will require all suppliers (excluding domestic self-suppliers) to monitor source water quality.  

It must be remembered that a one-off water test cannot provide certainty in respect of water quality – the more water quality data there is available and over as long a period as possible, the greater certainty about the water quality and its variability.  Variability in the microbiological quality of a water is likely to be much greater than the variability in the chemical quality.  This needs to be reflected in more frequent sampling for microbiological determinants. 

It makes sense to start testing your water now.

If you need some advice, please contact the Environmental Health Team at QLDC by emailing environmentalhealth@qldc.govt.nz or calling 03 441 0499.

Building Code changes

The Building Code changes previously scheduled to be published in September have been rescheduled to Thursday 5 November.  MBIE has also announced Building Code changes will occur annually in November, including:
·  C1 – C6 Protection from Fire
·  E1 Surface Water
·  E2 External Moisture
·  E3 Internal Moisture
·  G9 Electricity
·  G13 Foul Water