Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

 Plain Language Law homepage
Back to
133AE: Meaning of priority building
or “This explains which buildings are considered important in emergencies and need special attention for earthquake safety.”
You could also call this:

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

If you live in an area that has a medium or high risk of earthquakes, your local council has some special jobs to do. They need to find out which buildings might be dangerous during an earthquake.

Your council has to ask the public about parts of the town where pieces of old brick buildings could fall onto busy streets or footpaths during an earthquake. They do this by following a special process called the ‘special consultative procedure’.

The council can also choose to ask the public about buildings that might block important roads during an earthquake. But if they want to identify these buildings, they must use the special process to do it.

If there’s no chance of finding any dangerous old brick buildings in busy areas, the council doesn’t have to do this first part.

When the council does these public discussions, they need to do them quickly enough so they can find all the possibly dangerous buildings in time to meet their deadlines.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

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

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

Part 2 Building
Special provisions for earthquake-prone buildings: Application and interpretation

133AFRole of territorial authority in identifying certain priority buildings

  1. This section applies to a territorial authority whose district includes any area of medium or high seismic risk.

  2. The territorial authority,—

  3. for the purpose of section 133AE(1)(e) (prioritising parts of unreinforced masonry buildings), must use the special consultative procedure in section 83 of the Local Government Act 2002 to identify any part of a public road, footpath, or other thoroughfare in an area of medium or high seismic risk—
    1. onto which parts of an unreinforced masonry building could fall in an earthquake; and
      1. that has sufficient vehicle or pedestrian traffic to warrant prioritising the identification and remediation of those parts of unreinforced masonry buildings; and
      2. for the purpose of section 133AE(1)(f) (prioritising buildings that could impede a strategic transport route),—
        1. may, in its discretion, initiate the special consultative procedure in section 83 of the Local Government Act 2002 to identify buildings for that purpose; but
          1. must not identify buildings for that purpose other than in accordance with the special consultative procedure.

          2. However, a territorial authority is not required to act under subsection (2)(a) if there is no reasonable prospect of any thoroughfare in its district satisfying the criteria set out in subsection (2)(a)(i) and (ii).

          3. If a territorial authority is required by subsection (2)(a) or decides under subsection (2)(b) to use the special consultative procedure in section 83 of the Local Government Act 2002, it must use the procedure within a time frame that enables the territorial authority to meet the applicable time frame under section 133AG(4) for identifying potentially earthquake-prone priority buildings in its district.

          Notes
          • Section 133AF: inserted, on , by section 24 of the Building (Earthquake-prone Buildings) Amendment Act 2016 (2016 No 22).