Some builders are threatening to bypass council inspections due to "absurd" delays in getting staff on site.
Christchurch City Council's inspection system could result in a six-month build turning into a two-year project, a builder says. Photo:
Peter de Gouw of Home Trends Builders in Christchurch tried to book two pre-roof inspections earlier this week but there was no availability until early June.
Peter de Gouw. Photo: Home Trends Builders
The next inspection needed on those jobs would be pre-clad and pre-line, but neither of those could be booked until the pre-roof inspection had been carried out.
"This absurd system will extrapolate a normal six-month build out to over two years, if there's an average of 14 inspections at seven weeks apart," he said.
"Someone's got to pay for the holding costs ... and during that two years, there's going to be probably another 25 or 30 percent material increase for building supplies, then you add all that up ... it's gonna be a minimum of $100,000 extra per home."
He wrote to Christchurch City Council Building Consenting head Robert Wright earlier this week.
"I have instructed my building teams to request inspections as per usual and if you are unable to front up within a reasonable and normal timeframe, they are to take lots of photos and carry on regardless.
"We are accomplished Master Builders and LBPs [Licensed Building Practitioners] and yet are not respected enough by council as building professionals, to continue on with our usual work," he wrote.
De Gouw said builders had only two options.
"One is to either comply with these delays and probably face financial ruin because of them. The second option is to ignore the inspections, go ahead book them as you can but just go ahead and build the house anyway.
"The chances are you won't get code of compliance at the end and if you can't get code compliance then you probably won't get paid or the bank won't give you the money and the insurance won't insure the house. So yeah ... either way you're up the creek."
Wright said wait times were because demand was exceeding capacity and the council had taken on contractors and additional inspectors as well as rolling out virtual inspection technology.
De Gouw said he tried to book a virtual inspection but was unsuccessful.
Too many councils involved
Master Builders chief executive David Kelly said not complying with the inspection process would be problematic but he understood the frustration.
David Kelly. Photo: Master Builders Association
"There are very severe cashflow problems in the industry right now and this is making it worse ... this is when builders go broke."
He said the problems had been there for years but the current market, with a record number of new consents, was bringing them to light.
"We have too many councils that are doing building consents. Over 10 years ago there was talk about consolidating so that you had better expertise in a smaller number of consenting authorities, and better career paths for people - every council is struggling to attract and retain good quality staff.
"Secondly, because there are so many consenting authorities, they're all doing things their own way. So for builders who work across territorial council lines, or that have larger builders that work around the country, they just tear their hair out.
"They put in the same design and get a completely different response in terms of what's required, whether that's in the initial consent and the paperwork, or in the inspection processes."
The rules for building houses are different around the country, Master Builders Association says. Photo: 123RF
He said the process could be made more efficient and the cost to implement would be marginal.
"Technology is available for remote inspections. Some councils are looking at that, some councils have started on it but some councils don't seem to have any interest and that's a real disappointment. We're not a big country, pick one system, put it in place, train people how to use it both at the council level and at the builder level.
"That would improve productivity hugely."
He said a lack of political will was stopping progress.
"It's not just the current government, it was previous governments as well. So if we honestly believe that we have a housing crisis and affordability crisis, this is one of the things that we can move on, I believe fairly quickly."
Auckland Council was not experiencing delays. Building Consents general manager Ian McCormick said this was because Covid-19 infection rates had been kept to a minimum among staff.
Wellington City Council was the same, adding this was likely because many construction sites were on pause waiting for materials to arrive.
Meanwhile, banks said delays were impacting on clients but they were committed to working with customers who may have their costs increase, or be delayed in providing a completed code of compliance.
