Building Amendment Bill proposes major changes

The Bill was introduced on 29 June and has been referred to Select Committee, which will call for submissions on its contents before reporting back to Parliament. We’re currently working through and consulting on the detail of the Bill to find out what it means for you and your profession, before drafting a submission for the Committee’s consideration.

The Bill would introduce proportionate liability for defective building work, replacing the current joint and several liability approach for these claims. Under joint and several liability, a claimant can recover the full cost of defective building work from any liable party, regardless of their relative contribution to the defect. Proportionate liability would mean each liable party is responsible only for the share of loss that reflects their contribution.

The proposed change is directly relevant to engineers who provide any kind of advice or services that contribute to design or Building Code compliance. This applies to all projects that either require a building consent or have a building consent exemption.

In summary, the Bill proposes to:

• introduce proportionate liability for defective building project work claims
• require professionals who contribute to the design or compliance of building work (for example engineers, architects, designers, and building surveyors) to have professional indemnity insurance
• introduce mandatory home warranties for residential building projects valued above $100,000 and involving buildings less than 10 metres high
• simplify the process for territorial authorities to transfer their building consent authority functions to other territorial authorities, council-controlled organisations or private building consent authorities
• repeal the building research levy and combine it with the building levy, bringing both under the functions of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
• fast-track the building consent process for houses with solar, or other sustainable attributes, from 20 working days to 10
• make changes to support the off-site construction of granny flats.

We’ll consider the implications of the Bill from both a public interest and professional practice perspective. Our advocacy will primarily focus on whether the proposed changes fairly allocate responsibility, support quality building outcomes, protect consumers, and remain practical for engineers and engineering firms.

If you’re interested in getting involved in the development of our submission, get in touch via email at advocacy@engineeringnz.org.