13 June 2013

IANZ Withdraws Building Consent Accreditation Only As a Last Resort

IANZ, the organisation which accredits local bodies’ Building Consent Authorities, withdraws accreditation only as a last resort.

Chief executive Dr Llew Richards says IANZ has been assessing the BCAs of all the country’s local authorities since 2007 to give assurance that they comply with the legal requirements of the Building Act, and associated BCA accreditation regulations.

“We make every possible endeavour (as far as we are able, within the constraints of the accreditation process) to make sure BCAs maintain their accreditation. The fact that throughout the first three rounds - six years - not a single BCA lost their accreditation is testimony to these endeavours,” he says.

“The requirements are simple – BCAs must have good processes in place to meet regulatory obligations - to give assurance the building consents they issue are technically valid and the building itself conforms with the consenting requirements. 

“IANZ is not out to find fault. We want BCAs to show us they have good procedures in place and that they are effective.”

Dr Richards says BCAs are assessed by IANZ every two years so are now into their fourth round of assessments since the Building Act was passed in 2007.

“While we cannot name individual authorities, some BCAs have had no corrective action requests from IANZ for two rounds of assessments. This means their processes comply with regulatory requirements and that IANZ has confidence in their technical outcomes.

“When IANZ does issue a corrective action request, it means the BCA has not been able to show us they are complying with the legal obligations in one specific aspect. Generally BCAS are given up to 3 months to provide evidence that compliance has been achieved.  When a BCA is seriously non-compliant it may receive large numbers of corrective action requests.”

If, after that time, IANZ is still not satisfied or there are significant technical concerns, a follow-up assessment can be organised.

“This generally indicates some processes are seriously awry,” says Dr Richards. “When a follow-up assessment identifies continuing lack of compliance or the actions taken do not address the issues identified, then IANZ would be irresponsible to continue that BCA’s accreditation, as IANZ accreditation indicates compliance and reliability.

“Even though the Local Authority has a month to respond to the notice of revocation, it means the legal requirements for accreditation are not being met, and obviously a high degree of stress and tension for all the BCA staff involved.”

Dr Richards says IANZ never wants things to get to that stage. “We would only revoke accreditation as a last resort. Accreditation is all about providing independent recognition of an organisation’s technical competence – we provide assurance for the Building Consent Authorities and all the people who use their services.”

ENDS

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