Had a complaint? Know your next step

No LBP likes to find out someone’s made an official complaint about them, but knowing what the process entails can help make the situation less painful.

The Building Practitioner’s Board is a specialist tribunal responsible for hearing and investigating complaints about licensed building practitioners (LBPs), as well as disciplining those whose work or conduct doesn’t meet the scheme’s standards.

Receiving complaints

If the Board receives a complaint about you, it will inform you in writing. If the complaint is about LBPs who are licensed under another occupational licensing scheme, such as Registered Architects, there are provisions to refer the complaint to that organisation’s disciplinary body.

Investigating complaints

If the Board decides the complaint about you requires investigation, it will ask the registrar to report on the complaint. It may also appoint an independent special advisor to help with the investigation.

The complaint

The Registrar will send you a copy of thecomplaint and ask you to respond. Should you disagree with the complaint, you can give the Registrar any information or evidence to support your side of the argument.

The Registrar’s report

The Registrar may contact you, or the person that complained about you, for more information. Once satisfied, the Registrar will report the details of the complaint to the Board. This will include a summary of the facts and any points upon which you and the complainant disagree. Both you and the complainant will receive that report.

Grounds for discipline

When the Board receives the Registrar’s report, it will decide if your conduct or work comes within the ‘grounds for discipline’, as detailed in section 317 of the Building Act 2004. If there are no grounds for discipline, the Board will dismiss the complaint.

If there are grounds for discipline, then the Board will proceed to a complaint hearing. In many cases, this will involve a second, more detailed report on what occurred and all parties will receive copies of this report.

You can be disciplined if you:

• Carried out or supervised work negligently or incompetently.
• Carried out or supervised work that does not comply with a building consent.
• Portray yourself as being licensed for work that you’re not to licensed to do.
• Carried out or supervised restricted building work you’re not licensed to do.
• Have been convicted of an offence that affects your fitness to do building work.
• Gave false information to get licensed.
• Failed, without good reason, to provide a certificate of work for a building consent application.
• Failed, without good reason, to provide a record of work to the council or the property owner.
• Misrepresented your competence.
• Carried out or supervised work outside your competence.
• Failed to produce your licence or notify a change in circumstances (eg, your licence has been suspended or cancelled)
• Conducted yourself in a manner that brings, or is likely to bring, the LBP scheme into disrepute.

To find out more about what you should bring to a complaint hearing and the possible penalties, visit www.business.govt.nz/lbp

Next month we’ll go into more depth about recent LBP complaint appeals and the outcomes.