Consent-processing rate dives as check looms

Tony Avery
Tony Avery
Queenstown's building consent processing rate has dropped to a new low ahead of a checkup by Crown auditors.

Fewer than a third of consents issued in May by the Queenstown Lakes District Council were processed within the statutory timeframe.

The council's building department was heavily censured by International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ), the Crown entity responsible for building control authority accreditation, in late April following an audit.

It identified "significant concerns'' and issued 10 "corrective action requests'' and four "strong recommendations''.

Problems included holes in record-keeping, issuing certificates without evidence, and slow processing times.

It threatened to remove accreditation from the council. However, it accepted a council action plan in May, with a progress check on July 15 and a full assessment in October.

QLDC general manager of planning and development Tony Avery said yesterday there was a risk the council could lose its accreditation next month.

"We remain concerned,'' he said. "We're not underplaying that risk.

"We're confident at this stage, but there is still a risk and it's up to IANZ when they do that assessment.''

The council has to provide evidence to IANZ by July 15 it has implemented action to address the problems.

In May, only 29% of building consents were signed off within the 20-day timeframe. That is a decline from 46% in April and 80% in March. A total of 175 were issued in May, with an average processing time of 26 days.

The council received 754 applications for building consents of all kinds from January to May, up from 575 for the same period last year.

Resource consents processed in time dropped to 94% in May from 95% in April and 96.4% in March. A total of 100 resource consents were issued, 99 non-notified and one notified.

There were also delays in issuing code compliance certificates on new builds.

Mr Avery said: "We're working pretty hard on all the corrective actions. Unfortunately, that's impacting on our ability to deal with our consenting load.

"We knew the situation might get worse before it starts to get better.''

It was all hands on deck, he said. Administration staff were checking applications and processing simpler ones. Four external consultants had been contracted to process consents, bringing the total to 12. Staff were also working overtime.

A former Dunedin City Council infrastructure general manager, Mr Avery was appointed full-time in February when the department was already in crisis. Since then, he has appointed staff to replace others who had left, bringing the department numbers back up to 20.

He has been given approval to hire six more staff members, but QLDC building services manager Stewart Geddes said recruitment was difficult. There was a nationwide shortage of qualified people, who were also sought by other councils. He thought June figures would show an improvement.

Tane Tawera, Queenstown branch manager for Mike Greer Homes, said the delays were causing problems for clients of building firms across the district.

"It can put people in a tough position; for example, if they have arrangements with landlords to move out, or [are] paying both a mortgage and rent for longer.''

IANZ chief executive Dr Llewellyn Richard declined to comment while the process was ongoing.

paul.taylor@scene.co.nz

 

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