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In these newsletters, we cover the latest building industry news, trends, and tips. In this particular issue, we touch on a return to more manageable levels of building consents and what that means for our Building Services team, your chance to build a better future at the Wao Summit this year, and new guidance documents coming to assist with compliance schedules and inspections of Specific Engineer Design elements.
Building trends
The workload for our Building Consents team has now returned to something a bit more manageable, following a significant rush from applicants to have their consents in before new insulation changes came into effect in May 2023.
The 200 plus consents we received in May marked only the third time Council has hit such a number, but they’ve since tracked back to approximately 100 to 120 in the last two months. When considering the average consent numbers for these months in previous years (normally around 150 per month), it’s clear to see building activity is slowing - potentially a result of increasing interest rates.
Our Processing team has now managed to get May’s volume of consents under control, and we’re returning to compliance with the industry’s 20-day statutory timeframe for processing these applications.
Elsewhere, our Inspections team is also working hard to get their timeframes for an inspection from the current 12 to 15 days back to our normal 3 to 5 days. Last year saw a record year for the number of inspections undertaken in the district, with the team getting through 19,500 of them. With consent numbers dropping, the workload for our Inspections team should following suit soon.
In the meantime, we appreciate your patience while we’ve worked to address the recent high number of consents applied for.
Chris English
QLDC Building Services Manager
Building a better future at the Wao Summit
Local not-for-profit Wao will be hosting its 6th annual Wao Summit from October 24-29 this year, with events happening in both Wānaka and Queenstown. A key focus this year will be the building industry, with full days of events in Wānaka on Wednesday 25 October followed by Queenstown on Thursday 26 October.
Queenstown Lakes District is one of the fastest growing regions in Aotearoa New Zealand, and understandably, the building industry has skyrocketed over the past few years too. Guided by the Better Building Group, an incredible group of volunteer builders, architects and those passionate about building, Wao’s focus is on how we can build better. That includes everything from reducing waste to increasing energy efficiency and wellbeing.
Attendees of the Wao Summit can expect a multitude of workshops, lectures, and discussions specific to the building sector. These include the launch of the “This is How We Build” campaign with a building better breakfast, workshops on site waste management plans for builders, tours of passive buildings to learn about the latest innovations in energy efficiency, a workshop for architects exploring designing out harmful materials and waste, and finally an evening networking session and discussion on systems design in building.
Attendees will also have the opportunity to visit and experience passive certified buildings which showcase new state-of-the-art solar technology and energy efficient building techniques during the weekend at Lake Wānaka Centre and the sustainable communities tours in Queenstown and Wānaka.
More information about the Wao Summit and its events can be found at www.wao.co.nz/summit2023. Early bird special passes are available now until Saturday 7 September.
Sign up today to learn how the construction industry can strive towards a more sustainable future!
Kodiak Consulting Ltd
You may have seen media articles about an engineer who was allegedly falsifying Producer Statements.
Typically, a council-controlled Building Control Authority (BCA) will rely upon a PS1 Producer Statement provided by a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) in support of or in place of the BCA’s own checks. The PS1 is accepted as evidence of the design’s compliance with the Building Code and is issued by the engineer as a statement that in their opinion the design will comply. Currently, QLDC checks the Producer Statement author’s name and CPEng number against Engineering NZ’s register.
The engineer at Kodiak Consulting Ltd, although a qualified engineer is not a CPEng. In order to have his designs accepted by more than 40 BCAs across the country he has allegedly provided fraudulent Producer Statements and Certificates of Design Work issued in the names of unsuspecting CPEngs. Documentation seen by QLDC essentially stated that the design work was supervised by a CPEng from a different consultancy who was satisfied the design was compliant and issued a Producer Statement.
QLDC was notified of the issue by Engineering NZ, and NZ Police who are investigating the allegations. QLDC is helping with this investigation.
Fortunately, in our district only three projects have been identified as having had design input from Kodiak Consulting Ltd. Of these, two did not make it to a building consent application. One did receive a building consent, but the consent is not active.
In all cases the property owners have been contacted and QLDC is working with the recipient of the building consent to resolve the issue.
As there are ongoing investigations into Jon Hall and Kodiak Consulting Ltd, QLDC cannot comment further or provide specifics on this issue.
For more information about the allegations against Kodiak Consulting Ltd please head to: Consenting Concerns - EngNZ
Guidance documents
We’ll soon be making additional guidance documents available through QLDC’s website. These documents were initially written for use by the Building Services team to act as a guide in making processing or inspection decisions, and we’ll now be sharing them with a wider audience – you!
GD003 will be the first piece of additional guidance released – Inspections of Specific Engineer Designed (SED) elements. This has been updated so all parties involved in the design, construction and checking of SED elements of a building can gain an understanding of the roles and responsibilities of each party. It also provides an overview of the whole process for property owners and architects as interested parties.
The intention behind GD003 is to improve consistency in determinations by Building Control Officers (BCO) of whether a PS4 Construction monitoring producer statement will be requested by QLDC or if Council or a BCO will inspect the work. We also hope to see some improvement in consistency of documentation received from engineers, improved awareness from project managers and builders around engagement with engineers, and having the necessary documents available for BCOs at the appropriate time.
After that, we’ll be releasing GD001 - Compliance Schedules. This document will provide guidance for BCOs processing, inspecting, and issuing Code Compliance Certificates and a Building Warrant of Fitness. The document will be updated to include information for property owners on when and why compliance schedules are required.
Check here for Building Services Applications, Checksheets and Guidance.
Form updates
Exemption application form
We've increased the threshold for Territorial Authority discretionary exemptions under Schedule 1, Part 1, Exemption 2 of the Building Act to $30,000, to reflect increased building costs and potential upcoming changes to the MBIE Levy threshold.
Please note: the building work still needs to meet QLDC’s criteria for discretionary exemptions (i.e., low risk). Please see our website for more information and guidance at QLDC Exemptions or view MBIE’s Guidance on discretionary exemptions.
Processing checksheets
We've updated Building Consent processing checksheets (CS19 Series) over the last few weeks. The checksheets haven't changed much, but we’ve incorporated recent acceptable solutions document changes (i.e., H1), and streamlined the documents with some updated formatting to further clarify applicant and Council sections.
Please note: we’re still accepting old checksheets but will ask for the up-to-date versions from Sunday 1 October 2023. All checksheets can be accessed on our website: QLDC Checksheets.
To view previous issues, please visit: https://www.qldc.govt.nz/services/building-services/additional-information/brace-yourself-building-services-newsletter
If there is a topic that you would like to see covered, please let us know by emailing: chris.english@qldc.govt.nz
