Building Act 2004

Miscellaneous provisions - Miscellaneous - Regulations

401B: Order in Council declaring work to be restricted building work

You could also call this:

"What is Restricted Building Work?"

The Governor-General can declare certain building work or design work to be restricted. You need to know this can include work on small stand-alone homes, but not other work that does not need a building consent. The Minister must recommend this and be satisfied the work is critical to the building's integrity. The declaration can apply to all building work or just certain types of buildings. You can find more information on publication requirements in Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019. This helps you understand what restricted building work is. If you applied for a building consent before the declaration, the work is not restricted. The Governor-General makes the declaration by Order in Council, which is a type of secondary legislation. This means it has special rules that apply to it, as outlined in the Legislation Act 2019.

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This page was last updated on 9 November 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM4358344.

401A: Regulations: building consents and consent completion certificates, or

"Rules about getting permission to build things and how to check if they're done properly"

401C: Regulations: earthquake-prone buildings, or

"Rules about how to handle buildings that might fall down in an earthquake"

Part 5Miscellaneous provisions
Miscellaneous: Regulations

401BOrder in Council declaring work to be restricted building work

The Governor-General may, by Order in Council made on the recommendation of the Minister, declare any kind of building work (including building work for a non-consented small stand-alone dwelling but excluding other building work for which a building consent is not required) or any kind of design work to be restricted building work.
An order under subsection (1) may apply to any kind of building work or design work generally, or may apply to building work or design work in relation to particular types or categories of buildings or to particular parts of buildings.
The Minister may recommend the making of an order under this section only if the Minister is satisfied that the kind of building work or design work in question is (or is likely to be) critical to the integrity of a building or part of a building.
Building work or design work is not restricted building work if it relates to an application for a building consent made before the commencement of an order under subsection (1) declaring building work or design work of the same kind to be restricted building work.
An order under this section is secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

Notes

Section 401B: inserted, on 13 March 2012, by section 82 of the Building Amendment Act 2012 (2012 No 23).
Section 401B(1): amended, on 25 October 2025, by section 25 of the Building and Construction (Small Stand-alone Dwellings) Amendment Act 2025 (2025 No 59).
Section 401B(5): inserted, on 28 October 2021, by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).