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Building Act 2004

Building - Code compliance certificates, certificates of acceptance, and compliance schedules - Annual building warrant of fitness

108: Annual building warrant of fitness

You could also call this:

“A yearly check-up report for buildings to make sure they are safe and working properly”

If you own a building that has a compliance schedule, you need to give the local council a building warrant of fitness every year. This document shows that the important systems in your building, like fire alarms or lifts, are working properly and will keep working well.

You must provide this warrant on the anniversary of when you got your compliance schedule. It needs to say that you’ve followed all the rules for checking and maintaining these systems over the past year. You also need to attach certificates from experts who have checked these systems.

If an expert suggests changes to make the systems work better, you need to include that too. The warrant must be in the right form and have all the necessary information.

You have to display a copy of this warrant where people in your building can easily see it. If it’s for a cable car, you should display it in or near the cable car.

It’s against the law if you don’t give the council this warrant, don’t display it, show a fake one, or don’t display it correctly. If you break these rules, you could be fined. For a person, the fine can be up to $50,000, and for a company, it can be up to $150,000.

The experts who check your systems are called independently qualified persons. They’re the ones who do or oversee the checks and maintenance of your building’s important systems.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM306870.

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Housing and property > Home safety and repairs
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“The city council can change a building's safety check list by itself if it thinks it's needed to keep things working properly, but it must tell the owner first.”

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“The local council must listen to and think about ideas to change the building safety checklist.”

Part 2 Building
Code compliance certificates, certificates of acceptance, and compliance schedules: Annual building warrant of fitness

108Annual building warrant of fitness

  1. An owner of a building for which a compliance schedule has been issued must supply to the territorial authority a building warrant of fitness in accordance with subsection (3).

  2. The purpose of a building warrant of fitness is to ensure that the specified systems stated in the compliance schedule are performing, and will continue to perform, to the performance standards for those systems that are set out in the relevant building consent.

  3. The building warrant of fitness must—

  4. be supplied on each anniversary of the issue of the compliance schedule; and
    1. state that the inspection, maintenance, and reporting procedures of the compliance schedule have been fully complied with during the previous 12 months; and
      1. have attached to it all certificates, in the prescribed form, issued by an independently qualified person that, when those certificates are considered together, certify that the inspection, maintenance, and reporting procedures stated in the compliance schedule have been fully complied with during the previous 12 months; and
        1. have attached to it any recommendation made by an independently qualified person that the compliance schedule should be amended to ensure that the specified systems stated in the compliance schedule are performing, and will continue to perform, to the performance standards for those systems; and
          1. be in the prescribed form; and
            1. contain the prescribed information.

              1. The owner must publicly display a copy of the building warrant of fitness in a place in the building to which users of the building have ready access or, if the compliance schedule relates only to a cable car, publicly display the copy of the building warrant of fitness in or near the cable car.

              2. A person commits an offence if the person—

              3. fails to supply to the territorial authority the building warrant of fitness in accordance with subsection (1); or
                1. fails to display a building warrant of fitness that is required to be displayed under this section; or
                  1. displays a false or misleading building warrant of fitness; or
                    1. displays a building warrant of fitness otherwise than in accordance with this section.

                      1. A person who commits an offence under this section is liable on conviction,—

                      2. in the case of an individual, to a fine not exceeding $50,000:
                        1. in the case of a body corporate, to a fine not exceeding $150,000.

                          1. In subsection (3)(d), a reference to an independently qualified person is a reference to the independently qualified person or independently qualified persons who carried out or supervised the inspection, maintenance, and reporting procedures stated in the compliance schedule during the previous 12 months.

                          Compare
                            Notes
                            • Section 108(3)(c): amended, on , by section 47(1) of the Building Amendment Act 2012 (2012 No 23).
                            • Section 108(3)(d): amended, on , by section 47(1) of the Building Amendment Act 2012 (2012 No 23).
                            • Section 108(4): amended, on , by section 47(2) of the Building Amendment Act 2012 (2012 No 23).
                            • Section 108(5)(aa): inserted, on , by section 24 of the Building Amendment Act 2008 (2008 No 4).
                            • Section 108(6): replaced, on , by section 33 of the Building (Building Products and Methods, Modular Components, and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2021 (2021 No 21).
                            • Section 108(7): replaced, on , by section 47(3) of the Building Amendment Act 2012 (2012 No 23).