20 years ago:
• The NZMBF had written to the Minister of Internal Affairs asking that the Building Act be amended to require territorial authorities to issue Code Compliance Certificates within 48 hours of application, or to advise the applicant within that time frame of any outstanding requirements.
Chief executive Trevor Allsebrook said the request was in response to reports that many territorial authorities were attaching no importance to issuing certificates.
“In some cases they are taking many weeks to obtain, and this can have commercial implications for the builder,” he said.
15 years ago:
• Plans were under way for the establishment of a promotion for RMBF commercial members to parallel the House of the Year event that residential builder members enjoyed.
“The huge success of the House of the Year has left our commercial members feeling rather isolated,” RMBF chief executive Trevor Allsebrook said. “There appears to be scope for a similar promotion for them, though there are already various award programmes in place, for example, the one run by the New Zealand Institute of Building.”
10 years ago:
• Interest was high for the Government’s Building Bill, a radical reworking of the 1991 Building Act in the wake of the leaky homes crisis.
The Bill was to do away with the Building Industry Authority, bringing administration of building regulations and the Building Code under the Ministry of Economic Development.
The Bill also established registration systems for building practitioners.
5 years ago:
• Standards New Zealand was seeking feedback from stakeholders regarding parts of NZS 3604:1999 — the Standard for building timber-framed houses in New Zealand — that needed to be brought up to date.
The key objectives of the revision of the Standard were to:
• reflect needs of industry, and changes in materials and industry practice,
• reflect changes in other related Standards, such as those setting requirements for earthquake, wind, snow and other loadings that buildings should be designed to, and
• consider the merits of a “whole building” design approach, as opposed to the “single member” basis of design.
