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Building Act 2004

Building - Special provisions for earthquake-prone buildings - Identifying earthquake-prone buildings

133AG: Territorial authority must identify potentially earthquake-prone buildings

You could also call this:

“Local councils must find buildings that might fall down in earthquakes within set time limits.”

You live in a place called a district, which is looked after by a group called a territorial authority. This group has a job to do. They need to find buildings that might not be safe if an earthquake happens.

The territorial authority has a special way to check buildings. They use something called the EPB methodology. They need to use this to look at all the buildings in your district. If they think a building might not be safe in an earthquake, they can also say it’s “potentially earthquake prone” even if they don’t use the EPB methodology.

The territorial authority has a certain amount of time to do this job. How long they have depends on how likely earthquakes are in your area. If earthquakes are not very likely, they have 15 years. If earthquakes are somewhat likely, they have 5 years for important buildings and 10 years for other buildings. If earthquakes are very likely, they have 2 and a half years for important buildings and 5 years for other buildings.

While they’re doing this job, the territorial authority needs to tell another person called the chief executive how they’re going. They do this every year, every 2 years, or every 3 years, depending on how likely earthquakes are in your area.

After they finish this big job, the territorial authority can still say a building might not be safe in an earthquake if they think there’s a reason to be worried about it.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM7340939.

Topics:

Housing and property > Home safety and repairs

Government and voting > Local councils

Environment and resources > Town planning

133AF: Role of territorial authority in identifying certain priority buildings, or

“The council must ask the public about which streets need protection from falling bricks in an earthquake.”

133AH: Territorial authority must request engineering assessment of potentially earthquake-prone buildings, or

“The local council must ask building owners to get an expert to check if their building might fall down in an earthquake.”

Part 2 Building
Special provisions for earthquake-prone buildings: Identifying earthquake-prone buildings

133AGTerritorial authority must identify potentially earthquake-prone buildings

Within the applicable time frame under subsection (4), a territorial authority—
must apply the EPB methodology to buildings in its district to identify buildings or parts of buildings that are potentially earthquake prone; and
may, if it has reason to suspect that a building or a part of a building in its district may be earthquake prone, identify the building or part as potentially earthquake prone, whether or not by reference to any aspect of the EPB methodology.

Until the end of the applicable time frame, a territorial authority must report to the chief executive on its progress towards identifying buildings or parts of buildings within its district that are potentially earthquake prone as follows:
if the whole district is of low seismic risk, every 3 years; or
if the district includes an area of medium seismic risk, but no areas of high seismic risk, every 2 years; or
if the district includes an area of high seismic risk, every year.

After the end of the applicable time frame, a territorial authority may, if it has reason to suspect that a building or a part of a building in its district may be earthquake prone, identify the building or part as potentially earthquake prone, whether or not by reference to the EPB methodology.
The applicable time frame is the period commencing on the day on which this section comes into force (the commencement date) and ending on,—
for each area of low seismic risk, the expiry of 15 years after the commencement date; and
for each area of medium seismic risk, the expiry of the following period after the commencement date:
1. 5 years for priority buildings; and
2. 10 years for other buildings; and
for each area of high seismic risk, the expiry of the following period after the commencement date:
1. 2 years and 6 months for priority buildings; and
2. 5 years for other buildings.

Notes

Section 133AG: inserted, on 1 July 2017, by section 24 of the Building (Earthquake-prone Buildings) Amendment Act 2016 (2016 No 22).