New Rules Governing Building And Renovation

From March 1, the Council won’t be able to accept applications for residential building consents unless they are signed by a Licensed Building Practitioner. The Council does not have any leeway on this issue – the law change requires us to observe this new requirement with no exception.

As of last week, there were only eight people in Marlborough registered as design Licensed Building

Practitioners – the only people who are able to provide the necessary certification for us to issue consents.

Eventually, property owners will be able to do certain limited types of work on their own dwellings, but until Parliament has actually tidied up the legislation on that point to allow this, even work you are doing on your own house will need a certificate from a Licensed Building Practitioner.

Council will shortly be changing its forms for the new LBP Scheme and, in future, it will be possible to fill in the forms and send them to us by email.

• Find more information at Department of Building and Housing http://www.dbh.govt.nz/builditright
• DBH brochures with more information are available from the Council.