2016/006 Regarding the refusal to issue a code compliance certificate for a 20-year-old house with brick and weatherboard claddings
- Abbreviation
- 2016/006
- Valid from
- 15/02/2016
- Information provider
- Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
- Information type
- Determination
- Format
Description
This determination arises from the following:
- When preparing the house for sale, the agent discovered that the house had not been issued with a code compliance certificate due to several minor outstanding items identified during a 1999 inspection;
- The agent arranged for the items to be attended to and completed an application for a code compliance certificate on the applicant's behalf. Following several months of discussions, the agent was informed that the authority would not inspect the house due to its age;
- The agent was also advised that the authority would not consider undertaking an inspection and issuing a code compliance certificate without a full weathertightness survey by an approved assessor.
The authority's concerns regarding compliance of the building work appear to relate to the age and weathertightness of the house. The matter to be determined is therefore whether the authority was correct to refuse to issue a code compliance certificate.
In deciding this matter, the following were considered:
- (a) Whether the house complies with the relevant clauses of the Building Code that was in force at the time the building consent was issued. This includes compliance of the external building envelope of the house with Clause B2 Durability and Clause E2 External moisture of the Building Code.
- (b) Whether the house complies with other relevant parts of the Building Code in force at the time;
- (c) The authority's exercise of its powers in its apparent refusal or purported refusal to issue a code compliance certificate. The authority has raised concerns regarding the age of the building work.
Note that the owner will be able to apply to the authority for a modification of the durability periods for the 20-year-old house to allow specified periods to commence from the date of substantial completion.