LBP Skills Maintenance, February 2025 — for all LBPs | A recent Building Practitioners Board decision has highlighted the link between consumer protection and a licensed building practitioner’s obligations under the LBP Code of Ethics.

Shane Brealey of Simplicity Living discusses how reducing paperwork and red tape can help the industry focus on building faster, more affordably and more sustainably.

The LCA Team at MyImprint discuss Life Cycle Assessments, Carbon Footprint of Products and Environmental Product Declarations, and how architects, designers and product suppliers can take advantage of these tools to quantify environmental impacts.

LBP Skills Maintenance, December 2024 — for all LBPs | The Minister for Building and Construction, Hon Chris Penk, has announced a proposal for further reform of the building and construction sector. The Government will look at developing a new opt-in self-certification scheme for trusted building professionals and accredited businesses carrying out low risk building work.

LBP Skills Maintenance, December 2024 — for all LBPs | The Building Practitioners Board considers complaints against LBPs. To assist the Board, the Registrar of LBPs delegates the task to the Investigations Team within Occupational Regulation, MBIE. The Registrar will provide a report to the Board for consideration. If the Board decide to hold a hearing and an LBP has breached a ground for discipline, the complaint is upheld and the Board will then decide on an appropriate penalty.

The key challenge will be designing systems for both the recognition of overseas standards and product certification schemes where, for many products, the expectations of performance are universal, but there are some unique situations in NZ that may mean some products are not appropriate.

New and amended regulations came into force on 30 September 2024 to better clarify a ‘minor variation’ when it comes to amending a building consent, and a ‘minor customisation’ when it comes to a MultiProof. 

Building consent authorities (BCAs) need to be ‘satisfied on reasonable grounds’ that building work will meet the requirements of the Building Code before they can issue the building consent. This is not always as simple as comparing the plans with the performance requirements of Building Code.

It is estimated that up to 900 homes could be brought to market early, due to the new RDU which aims to de-risk large developments by underwriting construction of residential developments of 30+ homes. 

New industry research using Certified Builders house designs has shown that the cost of the new H1 building regulations is far lower than has been reported.