File photo. Photo: RNZ
Under a new scheme, some builders will be able to skip council inspections and certify their own work, raising concerns about quality control.
The building consent regime is about to be streamlined by the government, with self-certifications replacing some council inspections.
It means councils will be partly removed from the building consent process, allowing qualified tradespeople - including plumbers and builders - to forego inspections for low-risk builds.
Self-certifications will be open to those with a proven track-record, such as companies building scores of near-identical homes.
Some builders are congratulating the government for their "common sense approach" but others wonder if it's akin to young students marking their own homework.
The Detail spoke to NZ Institute of Building Surveyors president David Clifton about the new proposed scheme, including the risks, the fears, and the safeguards.
"The devil is in the detail and oversimplification may be the issue," he says.
"We have lots of good builders out there and some that aren't so good, and we still have an issue of high failure rate inspections."
He says the focus of the new proposal is on simple and small-scale buildings.
"There isn't a lot of detail on that. What is a simple building? That definitely needs to be thrashed out. I think the criteria of that really needs to be carefully considered.
"I think the management of who decides something is a simple building also needs to be really established, so is it the council who says it's a simple building because it's been submitted to council or is that an architect who can decide?"
So how do homeowners protect themselves against "cowboy tradies" who may opt to sign off their own work?
"This scheme is looking at the upper echelon of group builders and builders who are building high end buildings - and those with a very good track record.
"In saying that, weeding the bad apples out is tricky; we will never get them all out, but we must be better at general building, rather than focusing on bad apples as the core issue. General construction can't continue the current failure rates - at the moment we are failing 37 percent in the final inspection. And it's because there are not enough qualified builders."
He says education is key.
The government says it is not about lowering standards, "it's about placing the requirements of the system and the resources to where they're most needed... rather than having that regulation for regulation's sake."
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