Media statement 18 April 2007

Waitakere Council to consult on new consent fee structure

People may have to pay more for basic building consents in Waitakere City from 1 July this year, but one upside is that home owners should be able to have confidence once again in the buildings they are paying for.

Waitakere City Council is going to consultation on a new scale of fees that if adopted will be effective from 1 July. However, it says that extra costs will pay for the much more stringent building consent and inspection process required under the new building regulations.

The proposed fees reflect the wide reaching reforms recently introduced by way of Regulation. An initial driver was the systemic failures surrounding the Weather-tight Homes issue.

New regulations requiring councils to be accredited as a Building Consent Authority before 30 November 2007, are designed to bring about better practice and performance in building design, control and construction.

“These are much-needed reforms after the leaky building fiasco, but they do have the effect of increasing compliance costs,” says Councillor Vanessa Neeson, chair of Waitakere City Council’s Planning and Regulatory Committee

“The new regulations require much higher standards from everybody, from the building designer, through the builder and sub-contractors, to council inspection and approval processes. This should restore confidence after the leaky building disaster,” she says.

“However, it is worth making the point that this has all come about because of leaky buildings and leaky buildings came about because the Government mandated changes to the way buildings were built, the materials that could be used and the way builders are trained. So ratepayers are picking up new costs and the Councils are wearing the blame, while the Government seems to get off scott-free,” she says.

Councillor Neeson says the council will be taking all necessary steps to up-skill its staff.

“A lot more will be required of our technical staff under the new regulations – compared with the old regulations. So that is a good thing for the customer,” she says.

“However it is also going to be up to the applicant’s professional advisers to get applications right when they are lodged. Too often in the past we have been presented with applications with wrong, missing or inadequate information. Our staff have had to be proxy professional advisors guiding customers in how to get applications right. That has cost a lot more than the basic fee they would have paid if the applications had been up-to-scratch in the first place,” says Councillor Neeson.

So, we should be able to look forward to more efficient processes while the quality of the finished product will be to a high standard. This will restore confidence to the building sector,” Councillor Neeson says.

Ends

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