Seminars help clarify industry changes

Builders across the country value ‘takeaways’ from PlaceMakers eighth round of skills maintenance seminars

PlaceMakers eighth round of seminars was one of the best-attended so far, with many builders looking to better understand the latest changes.

“I always come along to the PlaceMakers’ seminars, but this time round I was dead keen,” says builder Tim Growcott, who attended one of two in the Wellington region. “We’ve got used to dealing with change over the past few years, but at the moment we’re on overload.

“Attending these sessions is a really helpful way to stay up to speed!”

The two-hour seminars flagged the big changes coming through in the Health & Safety and Construction Contracts Act, as well as going into detail about the new consumer protection measures in the Building Act.

Together, presenter John Tait and attendees went over the prescribed checklist and disclosure statement, handed out to everyone upon arrival. John ran through the information which must be included in mandatory written contracts and the new requirement to hand over insurance, warranty and maintenance information at the end of the job regardless of contract value.

There was plenty of discussion about the level of detail required and the purpose of the documents; however, only a handful of the 200-odd builders who attended the Wellington seminar mid-May had started a job under the new provisions.

Local builder Dave Mardell says that, while it may seem that some builders are behind the eight ball on the changes, they came in without any lead time and most homeowners he’d spoken with were completely unaware.

“Many of them have no idea why they’re receiving so much information, let alone understand the new level of work and responsibility we’ve taken on,” says Dave. “Most of them have only just come round to understanding that scaffolding costs need to be included in the price.”

Practical advice

As presenter John Tait went through the content, he also offered practical advice in a number of areas. Some of his key recommendations were to:

Ask questions & push back: particularly when working with architects, designers or engineers; if something doesn’t seem quite right or hasn’t got the level of detail you need, ask the question and put it back on the professional to sort it out. Builders have skill and judgement, so don’t be afraid to speak up if you need to.

Insist on contracts with subtrades: under the new consumer protection measures, the building contractor is liable to fix defects even if the issue relates to work done by their subcontractors, so it’s in your best interests to have subcontracts which pass on the obligation to put it right. This is NOT mandatory,
it’s just smart.

Special guest

Those who attended the Petone session in Wellington started it off with a 15-minute presentation from special guest speaker, LBP registrar Paul Hobbs, who also stayed for the rest of PlaceMakers presentation and questions at the end.

“It was great to have Paul come along and speak to the builders directly about the scheme and where it’s heading,” says John. “He also stuck around afterwards to chat to several builders.”

Paul started his talk by substantiating the protection written contracts offer trades as well as consumers , using the example of a builder, who “locked in” a job with a text “200K?” which elicited the response “yeah” from the homeowner via text.

“As much as we’d like to believe that will be fine, a large number of complaints about LBPs have been triggered by disputes where the agreement between parties has been vague and misunderstandings have arisen,” says Paul, who says it was the same when he worked as a carpenter.

 

“It was great to be part of a skills maintenance session that was both informative and offered meaningful learning outcomes for those attending,” says Paul

 

Paul also discussed the upcoming changes to the LBP skills maintenance regime, and suggested some scenarios where the new requirement to record two instances of on-the-job learning could be obtained.

“Basically, anytime you use a new technique, or complete work you haven’t previously done, that’s on-the-job learning,” says Paul. “Another great example is if you fail an inspection, and need to put it right. That’s definitely learning.”

Paul also emphasised the continued importance of skills maintenance activities, such as attending seminars and reading Under Construction.

“It was great to be part of PlaceMakers session because it was both informative and offered meaningful learning outcomes for those attending,” says Paul.