Complaint upheld against JB Hall

Mr Hall was the sole engineer and director of Kodiak Consulting Limited and was a Chartered Member (Engineering Technologist) of Engineering New Zealand. In 2024, Mr Hall was convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of four years and six months in relation to 112 charges of forgery.

Ahead of this, in 2023, Engineering New Zealand became aware of concerns that he had been completing and signing documents using the identities of Chartered Professional Engineers (CPEng) without their knowledge or consent. After receiving notification of concerns that Mr Hall had been forging these signatures, Engineering New Zealand also conducted an inquiry into his conduct.

The Disciplinary Committee found that Mr Hall’s conduct didn’t meet the expected standards of a Chartered Member of Engineering New Zealand and that he breached his obligations under the Code of Ethical Conduct.

Mr Hall’s actions affected a significant number of homeowners, with many of these homeowners unable to obtain insurance for their homes. In many cases, affected homeowners must now engage a CPEng to review the design of their buildings at their own cost.

In addition to this, many of Mr Hall’s projects have now been established as unsafe and require major structural and foundational changes. His conduct has also significantly impacted Building Consent Authorities, requiring significant work.

Engineering New Zealand Chief Executive Dr Richard Templer welcomes the decision saying, ““I’m extremely grateful to the Disciplinary Committee who have examined the complaint to determine whether Mr Hall’s conduct met the accepted professional standards - and found it did not.”

“Engineering New Zealand is committed to upholding standards of the engineering profession in the interest of public safety. This includes holding our members to account when required and acting when we find a member has breached the Code of Ethical Conduct.”

“We uphold the quality mark of Chartered Professional Engineer and take allegations of misappropriation extremely seriously.  ‘Chartered Professional Engineer’ is a quality mark for engineers who have undergone a competency assessment, and one that councils should be able to trust.”

The Disciplinary Committee decided that Mr Hall should be removed from membership of Engineering New Zealand and should be censured in the strongest possible terms. The Committee has also ordered that Mr Hall should be fined $10,000 (the maximum fine allowed) and that he pay 50 percent of the costs incurred by Engineering New Zealand in investigating this matter.

“Mr Hall as a Chartered Member was not a suitably qualified design professional and therefore required the services of a Chartered Professional Engineer. He was not qualified to review and sign off the various documents which he forged,” says Templer.

“We consider these penalties are appropriate give the overwhelming nature of Mr Hall’s misconduct and the cogency of the evidence.”