Avoiding inspection delays

How do you manage council inspections to avoid downtime?

Firm: Spectrum Construction
Principal: Issac Driver
Location: North Shore, Auckland
Staff: 10
We pre-book two weeks in advance; the council doesn’t like it, but it’s the only way we can avoid downtime. If for any reason we aren’t ready for them, we just re-book.

They’re really busy at the moment and if I didn’t pre-book, we could lose up to four weeks on a job, which is a cost I would have to absorb. For some of our recladding inspections, we’ve had delays of up to two weeks. When you’ve got scaffolding set up just waiting for an inspector, that’s a lot of money.

I also use engineers a lot to inspect our structural and foundation work, which
speeds the process up because they’re more readily available than council inspectors.

Another solution I think would work is a self-certification system, but I can’t see it happening anytime soon. It could work if it was managed properly. Obviously it would push up the cost of insurance, but it would really speed things up if we were able to sign off certain parts of a job ourselves.

 

Firm: HAMR Homes Ltd
Principal: Richard Warwick
Location: Whitianga
Staff: 6
Because we’re doing business in a small area, I’ve got a good working relationship with the council and inspectors. I book them about four to seven days in advance and make sure the boys have been thorough with their work, so we don’t have to rebook or redo work.

If we’re not ready for them, we just ring them up and they’re happy to drop by another time. A lot of people get annoyed with inspectors, but we have no real issues with them. When they ask you to do something, you just do it and move on.

As far as self-certification goes, I think there’s scope for it with some things. There are other things that will always need to be inspected, because people will try to take short cuts.

Another way of reducing delay would be to remove the need for council inspectors aren’t required where a producer statement is provided – such as with a water proofer. You’re also paying two people for the same thing in these situations.

There’s no need for an inspector to check them, because the issuer of the statement becomes liable for any defects.

 

Firm: Just Build It NZ
Principal: Geoff McNee
Location: Queenstown
Staff: 13

It’s really easy for us, because Queenstown is quite small. I’ve got a good relationship with the inspectors and I normally only need to give them a day’s notice.

There’s always small things that can be better, but we’ve got no issues with them. They’re all consistent and practical, which is really good.

I think a self-certification system is a bad idea. It sounds good in theory, but it would be dangerous in practice. We went through it with remote inspectors and I think it would lead to another leaky home type crisis.

If people were running over budget or behind time, there would be a big temptation to cut corners and I just can’t see it working.

 

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