Building Consent Authorities to get more time to focus on consenting activities

“These changes will free up time so that Building Consent Authorities (BCAs) can focus on processing building consents, completing inspections and issuing compliance certificates for Kiwis building their homes, says Suzannah Toulmin, Manager Building Policy today.

“The changes also bring the competency assessment timeframe for building control officers in line with a number of our formal occupational regulation regimes," said Suzannah.

MBIE completed a review of the competency assessment sections of the Accreditation Regulations to identify ways to improve the process and allow building control officers to be more productive, as well as reducing overall pressure on BCAs.

“During the review, BCAs raised concerns with the frequency of assessments and expressed wishes to align the assessment cycle with that of formal occupational regulation regimes - which we are now enacting.

“BCAs also indicated an increase in productivity and reduction in assessment frequency will offset a planned change in accreditation fees – which means there shouldn’t be a need for increases in building consent fees to be passed on to those building their homes,” said Suzannah.

The following changes will come into force in June 2024:

• A reduction in the frequency of competency assessments for building control officers from annually to at least every two years.
• Changes to the accreditation fees to ensure International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ) recover the cost of providing the BCAs accreditation.
• The requirement for BCAs to notify MBIE and IANZ of a change to their Quality Assurance Manager. MBIE can then provide support during the time of change if required.
• Separating the compliance provisions to improve the clarity of assessment results.

The Accreditation Regulations set out the minimum policies, procedures and systems that BCAs must follow to perform building control functions.

Building Consent Authorities (BCAs) must be accredited and registered under the Building Act 2004 to deliver consenting functions.

You can find more information on the Building Accreditation Regulations on the Building Performance website:

BCA accreditation(external link) — Building Performance