Chris Penk: Building and Construction Minister on the Government's planned changes for building consents

The Government's aiming to lift the burden of covering the costs of defective building work from councils.

It plans to replace the consent framework with a scheme making each party only responsible for their share of work.

Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk claims councils fearing liability for defects are hesitant to sign off on consents and inspections.

He says this follows discussions with the sector.

"Now we'll be able to get that legislated - and in the meantime, spend time getting that detail right about what those measures should be."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Envy Afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Big changes are coming to help speed up building consents.
The government says councils are extremely risk averse because they
carry the ultimate risks. So to get things cranking, they've
decided to make each party of the building process responsible
for their fair share of work. Chris Pink is the
Building and Construction minister down with us now, hey, Chris hever?
So basically, the builders responsible if the building stuff goes,

(00:39):
it's up. The sparky's responsible if the sparky stuff does
the same thing.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Yeah, exactly, And I'll just add a near. If the
council signs off something that they shouldn't have, then they'll
be responsible for us share, but not the whole thing,
which is what currently happens.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Now.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
What happens, for example, if the roofer does a bad
job on the roofing and they are obviously responsible for that,
but in they'll let the water in and then the
floor gets done and the job work gets done, and
that's the builder's work. Who's responsible for all of that?

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Then well, if there's a fault that's taken place in
one part of the system, in fact ruins the work
of someone else, but that second person wasn't responsible because
they should have had the right to expect that the
roof wouldn't leak in the first place. Then it wouldn't
be for the person who's made no real world error
to be responsible. It would be on who's actually made the.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Cock up and what happens if the building company or
any of these companies falls over, which happens all the time, Chris,
who do you chase them?

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah? Well that's why we have seen today that we're
going to have consumer protection measures in place, and there
are some already that exists out there, so it's a
matter of thinking about what ones we need to be
available or maybe even mandatory. So you got professional and
dimnity insurance for engineers and architects. You've got then master
builders and certified builders have their own guarantee schemes, and

(01:54):
then you've got group home builders who've got their own
comfort that they provide to their frenchise customers. So there
all kinds of possibilities and we'll get that detail right
by talking with the sector.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Now, hold on, but why haven't you done that? Because
in April last year you told us you were working
on in dimnity insurance and it's now, what like nearly
eighteen months later, you've done nothing.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yeah. Now we've spent the time talking with the sector
and including councils but also the building professionals about whether
we should go to proportionate liability, which is the change
we've announced today, along with some other stuff by the way.
But now we'll be able to get that legislated and
in the meantime spend detail. Spend time getting that detail
right about what those measures should be. I've got a

(02:36):
reasonable idea. Because Cabinet hasn't yet signed those off I
can't tell you that that's what will definitely be in place.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
All right, Hey, Chris, Thanks very much, Chris Pink, Building
and Construction Minister.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
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