Building Accreditation for Queenstown Lakes District Council

The Queenstown Lakes District Council, in conjunction with Lakes Environmental Limited, has been registered as a Building Consent Authority (BCA) by the Department of Building and Housing following the receipt of accreditation by International Accreditation New Zealand.

In the wake of ‘leaky building’ concerns, central government introduced legislation to standardise the building industry and to give homeowners greater assurance about builders, the consenting process and building methods.

This has meant increased compliance activity for local government, with the number of hours required to process a building consent and the average number of inspections for a new residential building having risen significantly. Similarly, the government has introduced the Licensed Building Practitioner scheme to standardise quality levels in the design and construction industries.

This month the Council received its Certificate of Registration with Lakes Environmental now registered as a Building Consent Authority (BCA).

“This registration confirms that the systems and procedures for dealing with Building Consent processing and inspection in this district are operating at the high level required by Building Act,” Lakes Environmental chief executive officer Hamish Dobbie said.

The building teams in Queenstown and Wanaka have put in a concerted effort over a sustained period to achieve the BCA registration.

“I think it’s important that the Council and the community acknowledge the ‘hard yards’ that have gone into the accreditation and my congratulations go to Lakes Environmental staff,” QLDC chief executive officer Duncan Field said.

The result was that the community could look forward with some confidence to consistently high building standards.  And the work was ongoing, Mr Dobbie said.

“The staff will continue to work to ensure building consent processing and inspection is carried out consistently within the regulatory framework to meet the expectations of the district's ratepayers,” he said.