A closer look at remote inspections
16 Sep 2024, LBP & Regulation, Learn, Prove Your Know How
The Government has announced there will be a public consultation in the coming months on a range of options to increase the uptake of remote inspections
Remote inspections are when building inspection activities are conducted remotely, using digital tools and technologies. Instead of visiting the site in-person, inspectors may, at their discretion, use live video streaming or review photographic evidence to assess the building work from their office, with the builder following their instructions onsite.
The use of remote inspections increased during the Covid-19 pandemic and has also been utilised when factors such as extreme weather has caused road closures, when heavy traffic can disrupt appointment times, or when the building site is in a remote location.
Remote inspections have been gaining further acceptance, with Building Consent Authorities (BCAs) using them to save inspectors
time on the road and reduce travel costs, provide business continuity and to ensure a timelier service to applicants.
Roles and responsibilities for inspections
The Building Act outlines the responsibilities of different parties involved in the building process under this Act, which includes:
- The owner has overall responsibility for ensuring the building work complies.
with the building consent and must ensure that they or their nominated representative enable inspections to be completed as required by the BCA. - The designer is responsible for ensuring that the plans and specifications or advice they give on compliance are sufficient, if followed onsite, to result in the building work complying with the Building Code.
- The builder is responsible for ensuring that the building work is carried out in accordance with the approved plans and specifications.
The BCA is responsible for checking that an application for a building consent complies with the Building Code and that the building work has been carried out in accordance with that consent.
Benefits of the remote inspection process
Remote inspections benefit everybody involved in the inspection process.
Building consent authorities will be able to increase the number of inspections they carry out by eliminating travel time. This will also create cost savings in vehicle and travel expenses, minimise exposure to safety hazards onsite, help upskill inspectors, improve record management through high- quality digital records which are geographically stamped, and make it easier to share of resources with other BCAs.
Builders will get more timely inspections that are undertaken at a time that suits them, rather than relying on the inspector’s availability. They will also see cost savings in not having subbies being paid while waiting for an inspection, a shorter build process through reducing down-time waiting for an inspection, a better understanding of the building code requirements through gaining an in-depth understanding of what’s required for the inspection, and, of course, safety – fewer people onsite reduces the likelihood of accidents.
The wider building industry benefits through a collaborative approach, which assists in building trust and reduced environmental impact through reduced travel- related carbon emissions. Remote inspections also provide for business continuity and resilience for the whole building and construction industry.
New tools and considerations
The industry has developed a variety of tools to undertake remote inspections, which support the user to capture the information and evidence the inspector needs to check that the building work complies with the consent.
There are a number of considerations BCAs need to keep in mind with its remote inspection approach, including the building complexity and inspection types. They may use their data on inspection failures to determine which inspections and building types it would consider for the early stages of adopting remote inspections. It may be that builders that are known to have higher inspection pass rates would be preferred as early adopters for the BCA’s approach.
Another consideration is the skillset of both the inspector and the builder. The inspector will need to be proficient in the remote inspection tool the BCA adopts, particularly for the livestream inspections.
Similarly, the builder will need to be competent in using the chosen software and technology and have a good understanding of an inspector’s expectations. BCAs could use existing relationships to identify suitable builders for early remote inspection adoption.
More information about remote inspections can be found on building. govt.nz . Talk to your local council to find out if they are looking to remote inspection for the future if they are not already using this technology.
Further guidance from MBIE
MBIE has just released a guidance document for BCAs on the adopting and growing the uptake of remote inspections. Although this guidance is aimed at BCAs, it is also particularly relevant to Licensed Building Practitioners and other tradespeople, who participate in the inspection process. You can see the guidance document at building.govt. nz .
Learning how to use the particular tools the BCA adopt for remote inspections is also a relevant on- the-job learning activity for skills maintenance.
This article is an excerpt from Codewords Issue 120 and has been published verbatim. As such, neither PlaceMakers nor Under Construction magazine’s publishers take responsibility for the accuracy of the article or its corresponding questions.
Reading Codewords articles that are relevant to your licence class is a mandatory requirement for Licensed Building Practitioners. These questions can be answered through the LBP portal, online on the Under Construction website or recorded on the magazine, then provided at the time of renewal.
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