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Building Act 2004

Miscellaneous provisions - Civil proceedings and defences

391: Civil proceedings against building consent authorities

You could also call this:

“This law says people can only sue building authorities for mistakes in special ways, not for breaking promises.”

If you want to take legal action against a building consent authority for how they performed their official duties when issuing a building consent or a code compliance certificate, you need to know that this kind of legal action is handled in a specific way. You can’t sue them based on a contract. Instead, you have to sue them for a ‘tort’, which is a type of civil wrong. This means the legal case would focus on whether the authority did something wrong in carrying out their duties, rather than on breaking a contract.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM309044.

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Housing and property > Home safety and repairs
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“You can't take certain people to court if they did their job properly under this law.”

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“The building authority can't get in trouble for trusting official building documents and approvals.”

Part 5 Miscellaneous provisions
Civil proceedings and defences

391Civil proceedings against building consent authorities

  1. Any civil proceedings against a building consent authority in respect of the performance of its statutory function in issuing a building consent or a code compliance certificate must be brought in tort and not in contract.

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    Notes
    • Section 391 heading: amended, on , by section 16(2)(r) of the Building Amendment Act 2005 (2005 No 31).
    • Section 391: amended, on , by section 16(2)(o) of the Building Amendment Act 2005 (2005 No 31).