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390: Civil proceedings may not be brought against chief executive, employees, etc
or “You can't take certain people to court if they did their job properly under this law.”
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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Next up: 392: Building consent authority not liable

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