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Building inspections across the Mackenzie are failing at a rate of nearly 80%, with the mayor warning that number could climb.
Mackenzie District Council operations and regulatory services manager Neil Jorgensen presented the figure as part of his building report at Tuesday’s council meeting, and said 117 of 151 inspections had failed in June.
Council building control officer Mark Mitchell told councillors the failures stemmed from a number of factors, including some complex builds.
“Some of the higher failure rates for the period [of] June were around framing inspections. Tekapo have some reasonably complicated framing designs,” Mitchell said.
“It could be an incomplete inspection … it can be documentation missing.”
He said the failures were not isolated to one company, but spread across the board.
Councillor Philippa Guerin said the failure rate was “not good enough”, and questioned whether education could help reduce the figures.
“What are we not doing, or what can we do better? Because 80% failure is not good enough.
“Why can’t we think outside the square and be a wee bit creative and try and help these people,” Guerin asked.
In response, Jorgensen said any education role would have to sit separately from the council.
“It’s really difficult for us to do education because we’re the regulator ... if the team doing the regulation is then advising someone, then they’re essentially consulting to them,” he said.
“That creates that liability.”
He said the council had received no complaints, and it was up to home owners to manage their own builds.
“It’s the property owners who need to go back to their builders and their designers,” he said.
“There’s not a big outcry ... the buildings are still getting built.”
Guerin said that was unacceptable, questioning why people should pay knowing full well something would fail.
“That’s all very well people are paying, but if they fail and if they require another building inspection they’ve gotta pay again, so actually that’s not right.”
Corporate commercial and planning manager Murray Dickson said it wasn’t builders or designers booking the failed inspections, but home owners themselves.
Guerin was quick to retort.
“Maybe the staff need to go back and say ‘actually you’re not ready for an inspection’ ... there’s got to be accountability somewhere,” she said.
However, Jorgensen said the numbers were in line with trends across New Zealand.
“The sector seems to accept that this is just what is done across New Zealand … this is not something we’re equipped to resolve.”
Pukaki ward councillor Jan Spriggs disputed this, citing contact with the Timaru District Council, which reported an inspection failure rate of 45-55%.
“That is quite a significant difference … it’s the same designers that are working in the Mackenzie that are working in [Timaru].”
She said she had received several comments from builders who were shifting work to Timaru.
“While people may not be complaining it may be that they’re taking another action to show their discomfort and unhappiness.”
Mayor Scott Aronsen said upcoming changes to the Resource Management Act would likely mean more failed inspections.
“We’re probably going to end up with a whole lot of other non-compliant buildings out there than what we currently have, so we won’t dwell on this for too much longer.”
Aronsen moved to accept the report, a motion carried by councillors Frank Hocken and Brian Finn.
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ on Air
