Know your stuff – restricted building work

Codewords 74: September 2016

If you’re doing or supervising building or design work on a residential property, chances are it’ll include restricted building work (RBW).

The rules about RBW help ensure homes, often a Kiwi’s biggest investment, are structurally sound and weathertight. RBW also covers fire safety design in small to medium apartment buildings. MBIE is running a campaign through to the end of the year to raise awareness about RBW, including that it must be carried out or supervised by licensed building practitioners (LBP). The campaign encourages people to visit www.lbp.govt.nz where they can find out more about RBW and their rights and obligations when building.

To help you understand RBW, we’ll cover off the four main elements:

1. RBW only applies to residential buildings. The building can be a house of any size, or a small to medium apartment building of less than 10 metres in height (this includes townhouses). The building must not have any commercial elements to it (no shops on the ground floor, for example).
2. If the work does not require a building consent, then it is not RBW. (Sometimes, a building consent covers both work that is RBW, and work that is not. Only the parts that are RBW need to be carried out or supervised by an LBP and require Records of Building Work or Certificates of Design Work.)
3. The work must be building work (construction, alteration or design) that affects the primary structure or the external moisture management systems of a building (or if it is design work, the fire safety systems as well).
4. The type of building work has to be covered by one of the seven licence classes. These include design, carpentry, bricklaying or blocklaying, external plastering, foundations and roofing.

So, what does this mean for you? Well, it means that if you’re carrying out work that meets all four points, it is RBW.

If it is RBW, an LBP has to carry out or supervise the building work and produce a Record of Work (RoW) at the completion of their part of the RBW. If it is design work, a Certificate of Design Work (CoW) must accompany the consent application.

If you’ve got any doubt about whether a job you’re going to undertake is RBW, call the local council or MBIE’s building advice line on 0800 24 22 43. You can also check out MBIE’s campaign and information.

Use licensed people for restricted building work(external link)

Licensed Building Practitioners

Quiz

1) Does building work need to have a building consent in order to be RBW?

1. Yes
2. No

2) Work to what types of buildings is RBW?

1. A dairy on the corner of your street
2. Commercial buildings with less than 10 floors
3. Public buildings that have less than 100 visitors a day
4. Residential houses of any height or small to medium sized apartment buildings of less than 10 metres in height. These buildings must not have any commercial elements such as shops in them.

3) Is building a detached garage in the back yard RBW?

1. Yes, it is a structure and it needs external moisture management systems.
2. No. Building a garage that is not attached to the existing house is not building work to the primary structure or external moisture management systems of a residential house or small to medium-sized apartment building (of less than 10 metres in height)

4) If you’re unsure about whether work is RBW who should you call for information?

1. The ghostbusters
2. Your best mate
3. The local council. Alternatively, you can check the LBP website or call MBIE’s Building Advice contact centre line on 0800 242 243
4. Your building material supplier’s sales representative