Licensing Update: Issue 9

Welcome ...

Welcome to the ninth issue of the Department of Building and Housing’s Licensing Update, keeping you up to date on developments with the Licensed Building Practitioners Scheme. 

In this issue we cover:

• Owner builder exemption consultation
• Upcoming licensing classes
• Approved activities available for skills maintenance
• Questions and answers

We also answer some of the interesting questions you’ve been asking us over the last couple of months. Please keep them coming.

Owner builder exemption consultation

Earlier this week, the Department released a formal consultation document that details the owner builder exemption to the restricted building work regime.

Under the exemption, owner builders will be able to seek an exemption to carry out restricted building work provided they take the same accountability as a professional builder; ie the implied warranties under the Building Act.

The proposal for an owner builder exemption was announced by the Minister for Building and Construction in April this year and since then the Department has been working on the details of this.

To rely on the exemption it is proposed owner builders must:

• be an individual
• own the land
• live or intend to live in the house the work is being done on
• carry out the work themselves
• complete a statutory declaration confirming the above to the council, which will be held on the property file
• not be engaged in the business of residential building
• have the restricted building work they do recorded on the Land Information Memorandum or the Land Title.

The aim of the owner builder exemption is to allow homeowners to undertake restricted building work on their own houses while still protecting consumers (future owners of the home).

The consultation document is now available from the Department’s website, or you can call 0800 60 60 50 to request a copy.

Feedback is due by Friday 1 August.

You can send your comments to:

Owner builder exemption consultation
Department of Building and Housing
PO Box 10-729
Wellington 

Or email them to: info@dbh.govt.nz

Upcoming licensing classes

Public consultation for the roofing, bricklaying and blocklaying, and external plastering licensing classes was held over May and closed in early June. Feedback from individuals and organisations has been analysed and issues are currently being worked through.

The feedback was mainly positive and confirmed that the licensing classes and the competencies are on the right track and pitched at the right level. However there was feedback around the following points:

Roofing
Plumbers and Gasfitters who do roofing work, particularly flashings and penetrations, wish to continue doing this work under their existing licence and not have to apply for and attain an additional roofing licence. This is because they have their own registration system and disciplinary procedures through the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board and Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Act.

Bricklaying and Blocklaying
One person commented that in Southland many bricklayers and blocklayers are also external plasterers and applying for two licensing classes could be prohibitive. The Department is exploring the option of a combined bricklaying and blocklaying and external plastering licensing class that may lower fees.

External Plastering
The Proprietary Plaster Cladding Systems National Advisory Group’s main concern was that from the limited text in the performance indicators for Competency 3, a tradesperson might be expected to know things beyond what would be considered reasonable for a tradesperson. The Department will ensure that the competencies are set at a trade level, rather than a supervisory one.

Time frames

Once finalised, the three licensing classes and fees will be presented to the Licensed Building Practitioner Board for approval. The Board will then present them to the Minister for Building and Construction in August.

Once the Minister agrees to the new classes, he will present them to Cabinet. Then they go through a consultation phase and become Rules and Regulations. It is planned to have them in force in early November 2008.

Concrete and Steel

The competencies for the concrete and steel licensing classes were presented to the Licensed Building Practitioner Board in early June and they will be reviewed by early August.

Once approved, the new classes will be sent out for public consultation. This is likely to be in early August. There will be four weeks for consultation and these licensing classes are due for launch in February 2009.

Foundations

The competencies for the foundations licensing class have been drafted and will be presented to the Licensed Building Practitioner Board for review at their July Board meeting.

Once approved, they will also be sent out for public consultation. This licensing class is also due to be launched in February 2009.

Approved activities available for skills maintenance

Once you become licensed, you are obliged to keep up with changes in the industry. This is known as skills maintenance.

As part of our work on skills maintenance, we will publish details of courses and events that have been approved by the Department. The following courses have been approved, and can be attended by anyone. If you are licensed, then you can count the courses towards your skills maintenance requirements.

Seminars approved by the Registrar

BRANZ 3 points	Sustainable Design Seminar series – Energy
Licence class(es)	Design 1, 2 & 3; Site 1 & 2
Cost	Seminar only: $85.00 (inc GST) Seminar and Energy book: $119.00 (inc GST)
When / where	Roadshow format, then available via web-streaming
To find out more	http://www.branz.co.nz and click on “Seminars”

BRANZ 3 points	Sustainable Design Seminar series – Window and flooring selections
Licence class(es)	Design 1, 2 & 3;
Cost	Seminar only: $85.00 (inc GST) Seminar and windows & flooring book: $140.00 (inc GST)
When / where	Roadshow format, then available via web-streaming
To find out more	http://www.branz.co.nz and click on “Seminars”

Barrier Free NZ	Accessible Journey series
3 points	Module 1: Experiencing the Accessible Journey
2 points	Module 2: The law, Access and the Accessible Journey
3 points	Module 3: Designing the Accessible Journey
3 points	Module 4: Assessment and the Accessible Journey
Licence class(es)	All
Cost	From $100 to $210 (+GST) per seminar
When / where	Roadshow format
To find out more	http://www.barrierfreenz.org.nz and click on “services”

Publications approved by the Registrar

Certified Builders Association NZ	Inhouse articles (CBANZ publication issued every two months)
1 point	Peter Degerholm articles
1 point	Geoff Hardy articles
Licence classes	Carpentry; Site 1 & 2
To find out more	http://www.certified.co.nz
Articles written for the Inhouse publication by these authors have been pre-approved for the next year. Any LBP reading one or both came claim the approved points towards their skills maintenance.

Points earned from attending any pre-approved activity or reading any pre-approved publication can be claimed under the category ‘publications/activities pre-approved by the Registrar’ in your Record of skills maintenance. There is no limit to the number of points you can claim under this category.

We have publications, activities and web-stream seminars being approved all the time and we will be promoting them regularly in this e-newsletter.

Questions and answers

The following are a selection of the questions that practitioners have been raising with the Department. If you have questions about the scheme that you would like answered, you can contact us on 0800 60 60 50 or info@dbh.govt.nz

Question
I have recently received my Design 2 licence. However, I have noticed that there is a difference of opinion in the difference between Category 2 and Category 3 buildings.

My assessor and I both agree that one of my projects is a Category 2 building (and therefore can be designed by someone with a Design 2 class) but two separate TAs say it is a Design 3 building.

Building consists of:
A commercial two storey building of 460m2 with the lower level tilt slab construction with three sides underground. The upper level is steel portal frames lined in coloursteel.

I had to apply for resource consent for parking, coverage, earthworks and drainage, plus working drawings for construction.

During the course of this I had to receive reports from:

• Surveyor
• Drainage engineer
• Structural engineer
• Fire Report
• Geo Tec report

Could you please confirm if the building outlined above is a Category 2 or Category 3 building?

Answer
The considerations for establishing whether a building is Category 2 or Category 3 under the Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP) scheme are:

• Use
• Occupant numbers
• Building height
• Importance level (based on AS/NZS 1170 Part 0)
• Status under the Historic Places Act.

From what you have described:

• The building has two stories. It is unlikely to have a floor 10 metres or more above (or below) an exit. This fits within Category 2
• The Use of the building is not stated, other than being a “commercial building”. It is not a hospital (SC), prison (SD) dangerous factory (WH) or bulk storage warehouse (WF). Therefore it fits within Category 2
• The floor area is stated as being 460m2. I assume this is per floor. If occupant numbers are calculated using Table 2.2 from C/AS1, an assumption must be made about the use. The stated occupant density for a showroom is 0.2 persons per m2, while for office space it is 0.1. This would give theoretical occupant numbers of 92 persons or 42 persons per floor - well within the limits for a Category 2 building.
• The building is new, so it has no Historic Places Trust rating.

Based on the description provided, the building would be Category 2 under the LBP scheme.

You say that you have discussed the building example with people at two councils. It is worth noting that some BCAs have developed their own building categorisation systems which they use to allocate work to staff with different levels of competence. 

In addition, the Local Government Industry Training Organisation (LGITO) is also developing qualifications for building officials that divides buildings into “small” and “medium and large”. Both of these categorisation systems are unrelated to the LBP scheme.

Question
I am applying for my Site 1 and carpentry classes, but for one of my projects there is no client who can comment about it. What can I do in this case?

Answer
Remember, for each project, you need at least one referee who can talk about the work you did, and your role. For the combined Carpentry and Site 1 application we recommend you have one referee who is a client or employer, and two who were either subcontractors, supervising engineers or design consultants.

If you have trouble finding one of these people to be a referee there are other options. The assessors want to be able to talk with people who can explain what you did on each project. So take your time and find another builder, or other subcontractors who can explain this.

The assessors are open to other options, but you have to be able to show how they are relevant to the project in question.

Question
How much detail do you want on the work history section of the application? I have been involved in a lot of projects lately, and there does not seem to be a lot of room to fit them in.

Answer
When you apply for any of the licensing classes, you need to give the assessors an overview of your career. They are looking for a general progression, seeing where you started and where you are now.

This should only be a summary. It should also be about each role you have had (ie, site supervisor for a company, or self-employed) and not about each job you have completed.

It is important to show the type of work you were doing, and when the assessor rings you, they may ask you more questions to understand your experience.