Building confidence in the LBP brand

Building Practitioners Board continues to weed out Licensed Building Practitioners who are not up to standard

The Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP) scheme aims to ensure that people in the building industry are competent and accountable, so that homes and buildings are designed and built right the first time.

To ensure the credibility of the scheme, those who are licensed must uphold that standard. To make sure this happens, the Building Practitioners Board (BPB) provides a forum to hear complaints about the conduct and quality of building work carried out by LBPs.

“Having the BPB deal with complaints in a timely and professional manner is essential to instilling and maintaining homeowners’ confidence in the brand,” says LBP registrar Paul Hobbs. “The LBP scheme is still fairly young, compared to other occupational licensing schemes operating in New Zealand, and this forum is important to help it develop and mature.”

In October 2014, the BPB heard complaints about six LBPs, with one having two complaints upheld.

David Gillanders of Ranui, Auckland defended two complaints before the BPB in October 2014. Details of the complaints had not been published at the time of print, but will be available on the LBP website by early February.

In summary, the BPB says the complaints stemmed from negligent or incompetent work, not adhering to LBP responsibilities and failure to complete projects.

“The Building Practitioners Board (BPB) provides a forum to hear complaints about the conduct and quality of building work carried out by LBPs

As a result of the complaints being upheld, Mr Gillanders’ licence has been cancelled and his name has been published on the complaints page and in the Codewords newsletter, as well as removed from the LBP register.

Furthermore, Mr Gillanders is not allowed to be re-licensed for at least three years and was ordered to pay fines and costs.

The BPB also found that Mr Gillanders demanded payment when he had no intention of completing the work.

“While contractual matters concerning payments are not relevant grounds for complaints to the LBP board, they can be an influencing factor, particularly if they risk bringing the scheme into disrepute,” says Paul.

Since Restricted Building Work came into effect in 2012, the number of complaints made to the BPB each
year remains static, at around 70 complaints per year for approximately 24,000 LBPs.