Maintaining control

This Issue This is a part of the Let's talk building controls feature

By - , Build 181

Claire Stevens, Principal Technical Specialist, Hutt City Council, is on the frontline when dealing with issues around building controls and consenting. She told Build about the day-to-day reality of this at the Council.

Q. What is your background in the building industry?

I’ve worked for local authorities since graduating from university with an engineering degree in the early 1990s. I started out in transport, but since 2002 I’ve been doing a variety of work in building consenting and identifying earthquake-prone buildings for Wellington City and Kapiti Coast District Councils. I’ve been with Hutt City Council for 3 and a half years.

Q. What would a typical working day look like for a building inspector, and what would a typical working day look like for you?

A building inspector at Hutt City Council typically has six to eight inspections on their books on any given day, as well as the relevant paperwork to review. They also field numerous queries and complaints. With housing demand high, more-intensive infill development in recent years and a recent plan change enabling higher-density residential development in targeted areas of the city, the team is very busy and they’re going to get busier.

If there’s a single characteristic of my working day, it’s variety and that’s one of the key attractions of my job. The team of five I manage covers council’s functions under the Building Act, except for building consents. This includes earthquake-prone buildings, registration and auditing of building warrants of fitness, inspections of fencing of residential pools and I manage council’s Eco Design Advisor.

One responsibility I have is overseeing the quality system that manages the documentation of the consent processes, which is crucial for any building consent authority (BCA). Related to that is organising the professional development of my team. This is critical to ensure we’re all up to date with the latest regulatory and technical requirements and operating at optimum levels in a complex and demanding environment.

Q. What are the major issues facing BCAs, and have these changed in recent times – for example, with the number of consents being issued or even the impact of COVID-19?

At Hutt City Council, a key challenge has been the strong and enduring increase in consent applications over the last few years. This is a trend we expect to continue for quite a while. With this comes the development of land that’s previously been difficult to build on, and this raises a range of issues that need to be resolved during the building consent process.

COVID-19 caused some disruption. We were able to process building consents during lockdown, but inspections came to a halt. As a result, we’re taking a closer look at how technology can continue to streamline the process for our customers and team members.

Q. Have there been changes in the quality of residential building work since the establishment of the Licensed Building Practitioners Scheme?

My role is to manage the Council’s BCA quality system to document and make sure we are doing what we have to do rather than getting involved in the quality of applications.

However, I would say that well documented applications for building consent make it easy to process and inspect the building work.

Q. Where there are quality issues, where do they usually lie?

Quality issues are everyone’s responsibility – we all need to make the effort to do things better. Our quality system is in place for two reasons – we are required to have it under the Building Act, but it is also good business practice to document our procedures so everyone knows what they have to do and to ensure we have a consistent approach across the team.

In a perfect world, all organisations in the building process would look to document their processes and have a continuous improvement feedback loop to improve how they do things. It is in everyone’s interest that a job is done right first time and rework is minimised.

Q. Through the BRANZ helpline, we hear there are often significant RFIs on building consent applications. Why do you think this is, and how could this be avoided?

I think some applicants don’t realise what documentation needs to be provided as part of the consent application to provide reasonable grounds for council to grant a building consent and sign off the Code Compliance Certificate at the end of the job.

IANZ, who audit us, often say if it isn’t written down, it didn’t happen. Sometimes, applicants don’t document what they see as glaringly obvious things that will happen as part of the build process, but they need to write it down.

Q. There has been a move towards online lodging of consents and suggestions that the consenting process could be further advanced with the use of technology, including the use of BIM. Do you have any thoughts on this?

We are currently investigating how technology can continue to assist us to make the consenting process easier for both our customers and our team. This, hopefully, will allow customers to give us all the information we need for the building consent process and then for our teams to do their parts more efficiently and effectively.

Q. The removal of the requirement to get building consent for small stand-alone dwellings is intended to lighten the workload of BCAs. Are you satisfied that this is a good move and that quality standards on these types of structures will be maintained?

While the recent changes to Schedule 1 of the Building Act widened the work people can do without getting a building consent, often the person in the street doesn’t read the fine print. For instance, new 30 m² accessory buildings still need to be their own height away from any property boundary and any residential building on the site. There are not a lot of sites in urban areas where you have enough space to fit one in and meet these criteria.

I think there will be more enforcement issues as customers read the headline but don’t realise these limitations and just build them.

Q. What do you most enjoy about your job?

Variety – it is different every day, which means I’m never bored. It is also good to be part of a group of people achieving their projects in compliance with the rules – buildings that are sustainable as well as a place that people can use safely and contribute to their wellbeing.

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