Builders Business – Self Certification

Jo Neale, Managing Director, Homes By Orange 

Location: Nelson / Tasman 

1. Do you think the proposed law change to let trusted builders self-certify will lead to less expensive construction?

We’ve got seven houses under construction at the moment and we’ll normally do about 20 a year, so I think being able to self-certify would save us a lot of time and money. I’ve heard estimates that self-certification could save up to 20 working days, which seems a bit on the high side, as I don’t think inspections cost us 160 hours of productivity. But, that said, it will save time, and time is money. 

Our business doesn’t employ builders; they sub-contract to us. In future, we would have to look seriously at only contracting work to firms who can self-certify. We only work with Licensed Building Practitioners (LBPs), so it wouldn’t be much of a departure from our existing requirements. 

1. Do you think the Government’s target for all BCAs to complete 80% of inspections within three working days is realistic? 

I think 80% is a realistic target. In Nelson, I think they are probably meeting that at the moment, as the volume of building work has fallen away. The thing that causes delays regarding inspections is that the council will put a stop to them if it doesn’t have certain supplier paperwork, such as R values for exterior joinery certification before a cladding inspection. But we’re reliant on suppliers giving us that paperwork, so it’s totally out of our hands. 

Greg Sinnott, Director, Sentinel Homes Otago 

Location: Otago 

1. Do you think the proposed law change to let trusted builders self-certify will lead to less expensive construction?

I think there’s potential for it to speed us up by perhaps a week per inspection, especially in cases where there’s downtime because you’re waiting for an inspection. That will make building cheaper in the long run. 

As far as I’m concerned, I think there’s a little bit of nervousness around the industry regarding self-certification. I’ve been around long enough to know that bad actors can spoil things for the best of us – like when we had independent inspectors, who weren’t carrying out their job as diligently as they should. We all heard horror stories about that. However, I believe this regulation has been well planned and thought out, so I’m optimistic. 

1. Do you think the Government’s target for all BCAs to complete 80% of inspections within three working days is realistic? 

Around Otago, they’re not being done within three working days, which tells you a lot – especially as there’s less building activity happening now than there was a few years ago. I’m not blaming the inspectors, because I know councils don’t have the financial resources, so they will need help to hit that 80% benchmark. 

By and large, I think you’ll find all building companies are more than happy to have inspections. Where it gets frustrating is when you lose time on the job because you’re waiting for one to take place. It’s here that remote inspections could help. I can’t see why remote inspections can’t be successful around the country and what I’ve seen in terms of proposed legislation, it looks like there’ll be protections in place to make sure they work well.  

Todd Broswick, Director, Broswick Builders 

Location: Auckland 

1. Do you think the proposed law change to let trusted builders self-certify will lead to less expensive construction?

Self-certification would definitely speed us up – by how much depends on the type of dwelling we’re building. For a small build, it will speed us up a lot because there’s less opportunity to be really organised and book inspections in advance as you progress. It’s difficult to get an inspection within a week if you haven’t planned ahead, which slows down builds. For larger builders, because you can plan further ahead, you have a greater opportunity to get your inspections lined up ahead of time. 

We’d be interested in opting in to self-certification, but I’ve heard through the grapevine that the only people able to do it will be those massive volume builders, which would rule us out. 

1. Are you concerned about the implications of self-certification if it goes wrong?

The scary thing regarding self-certification is what happens if a build hasn’t been built up to scratch. I’d like to see some sort of Warrant of Fitness regime for self-certified builds just to balance out some of that risk a bit more. 

I’m also a little concerned about the large group home builders that sub-contract work. Once you bring subcontractors into the mix, it gets a bit messy, as we don’t know the eligibility requirements yet. If they can self-certify, those sub-contractors could be more incentivised to cut corners to make their progress payments. This is especially relevant if they are on fixed price contracts. However, that is the worst-case scenario and there will be plenty of builders who would never do that.