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133AI: Obligations of owners on receiving request for engineering assessment
or “Building owners must respond when asked for an earthquake safety check”
You could also call this:

“Building owners can ask for more time to get their building checked for earthquake safety”

If you own a building or part of a building, and the local council asks you to provide an engineering assessment, you might need more time to do it. This can happen if there aren’t enough qualified people to do the assessment.

You can ask the council for more time, but you need to do this at least two months before the assessment is due. You can ask for up to 12 more months to complete it.

The council will quickly decide whether to give you more time or not. If they agree, they will tell you in writing when the new due date is. If they don’t agree, they will also let you know in writing.

Remember, the council can only give you extra time once. They can’t extend the due date again after that.

If you want to know more about when the council might ask for an engineering assessment, you can check section 133AH.

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Next up: 133AK: Territorial authority must determine whether building is earthquake prone

or “The local council must check if a building is safe during earthquakes”
Next

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

133AJOwners may apply for extension of time to provide engineering assessment

  1. This section applies if—

  2. a territorial authority asks the owner of a building or a part of a building to provide an engineering assessment of the building or part under section 133AH; and
    1. the owner is unable to provide an engineering assessment by the due date (for example, because of a shortage of people qualified to conduct engineering assessments).

      1. The owner may, no later than 2 months before the due date, apply to the territorial authority for an extension of up to 12 months from the due date.

      2. The territorial authority must deal with the application promptly, by—

      3. granting the extension and notifying the owner in writing of the revised due date for the engineering assessment; or
        1. notifying the owner in writing that the extension has not been granted.

          1. A territorial authority must not extend the due date for an engineering assessment more than once.

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