Government urged to revamp 'outdated' building regs

The system used to review building standards in New Zealand is falling into disarray and may cause problems for homeowners, says the chairman of the Construction Industry Council, John Pfahlert.

"I can't guarantee that there aren't standards out there that are posing risks to people," he said yesterday after appearing before Parliament's commerce select committee.

The industry had the expertise to review the standards but not the money to do so. It was prepared to fund it itself with an increased building industry levy.

"The whole review of the leaky building issue and the new Building Act was about the industry being able to stand up and be counted and say that we are doing our best in building houses fit for the purpose.

"It is increasingly difficult to do that if we are going to under-resource the standards mechanism," he told the committee.

"While the recent leaky building crisis has meant that many of the large important building standards have been upgraded, there are simply dozens of standards in New Zealand which in our view are in need of upgrading."

Asked to be specific, he said later that the standards around earthworks for housing foundations were outdated.

But he was not talking about an immediate or catastrophic failure of a house.

"We are talking about technical standards that underpin the entire regulatory framework."

The accepted international review date for standards was seven years.

But half of the present 600 standards that underpinned the Building Code were more than 10 years old and needed to be reviewed.

"We are actually going backwards. The average age of our standards is actually getting older in New Zealand."

Various industry advisory groups - fire, piping and plumbing, design, timber, cement and concrete, and energy efficiency - had sorted out which standards needed priority. About 60 fall into that category.

Mr Pfahlert said only about 15 of the 600 standards directly relevant to the leaky buildings crisis issue had been reviewed.

He believed that under the pending Building Code review only another two dozen would be included in the review.

(The Building Code specifies the outcomes and some building standards are referenced in the Building Code.)

Mr Pfahlert wants to increase the building industry levy by 26c per $1000 of construction to raise the $2 million he estimates would pay for an ongoing review - or to get the funding from the Department of Building and Housing. That would add $104 on average to a $400,000 home.

It would take 10 years to review all the standards.

Mr Pfahlert said he had raised the issue with Clayton Cosgrove after he became Building Issues Minister and he had raised it at the select committee to try to put pressure on an issue that had been discussed for 2 years.

National housing spokesman Phil Heatley accused the Government of turning a blind eye to issues of safety.

Mr Cosgrove said last night the building industry was being "reconstructed" because it had been deregulated by National in the 1990s and "anything went".

From territorial local authorities going through an accreditation process to get building inspectors up to speed, to reviewing the weathertight home resolution service, "the whole industry is being reconstructed".

"Would I like to go fast, quicker? Of course. I've got my foot on the accelerator of my department which is just 12 months old and has been delivered up a few barbed-wire sandwiches. But it has got to be done right."

The review was being done by the Department of Building and Housing. It was the pre-eminent document and set the key performance requirements of buildings.

Mr Cosgrove said he had immense respect for Mr Pfahlert and was willing to look at all options "but nothing was done for 10 years under the Tories and I'm having to reform the whole show".