Strengthening Earthquake-prone Buildings May Trigger Other Costs For Building
Thursday 11 August 2011, 3:09PM
By Marlborough District Council
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Moves by Marlborough earthquake-prone building owners to strengthen their commercial buildings will usually also mean that other improvements must be made at the same time to meet the requirements of the 2004 Building Act.
Applications for consent to do upgrade work, or other changes to an existing building, will usually trigger a section of the Building Act relating to standards of access and facilities for people with disabilities and means of escape in case of fire.
“This requirement isn’t peculiar to earthquake-prone buildings; it’s just a part of the Building Act which is aimed at improving buildings in terms of things like fire escapes and ensuring that lifts exist for buildings with two or more storeys with a floor area of 400 square metres or more,” says Council Environment Committee chairman Peter Jerram.
The Act says a building consent should not be granted for alteration unless the alterations mean the building will comply ‘as near as reasonably practicable’ with Building Code provisions relating to fire escape and disability access.
Councillor Jerram says these requirements are set down in government legislation and are not matters over which Council has jurisdiction.
“We appreciate that this is going to mean extra costs for some local building owners so it would be useful if the Department of Building & Housing (which administers the Building Act) was to make a ruling, or determination, on what that reference in the Act to ‘reasonably practicable’ means in reality.”
“We would encourage building owners who find themselves in the position of having to comply with this requirement to first seek a determination from DBH,” he said.
Councillor Jerram said it would be helpful to everyone if there was more clarity on this point given that the primary motivation is simply to improve the strength of buildings.
Installing a lift in some buildings, for instance, would be both physically difficult as well as expensive to achieve, he said.