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Building Act 2004

Regulatory responsibilities and accreditation - Responsibilities of chief executive - Powers of chief executive to investigate building failures

207C: Investigation of building failure

You could also call this:

“The government can look into buildings that break or don't work right if it might hurt people badly.”

The chief executive can investigate a building failure on their own if they think two things are true. First, a part of the building didn’t work as it should have based on the rules for how it was designed and built. Second, this failure could have seriously hurt or killed someone.

If the Minister asks the chief executive to investigate a building failure, the chief executive must do it. But the Minister can only ask for this if they think the two things mentioned before are true.

When the chief executive starts an investigation, they need to tell the building owner in writing as soon as they can. They don’t have to tell the owner before they start looking into things, though.

A building failure can be investigated more than once. This means they can do follow-up investigations after the first one is done if they need to.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS299288.

Topics:
Housing and property > Home safety and repairs
Government and voting > Government departments
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“ This law explains when and how someone can legally enter your home or marae for inspection purposes. ”

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207D: Powers of investigation: purpose and investigation site, or

“The chief executive can investigate a building failure to learn from it and make better decisions about buildings and their safety.”

Part 3 Regulatory responsibilities and accreditation
Responsibilities of chief executive: Powers of chief executive to investigate building failures

207CInvestigation of building failure

  1. The chief executive may, on the chief executive’s own initiative, investigate a building failure if the chief executive reasonably considers that the following requirements are satisfied:

  2. any part of the building has failed in any way, in that it has not performed as expected having regard to the enactments or other legal requirements that applied to the design and construction of the building; and
    1. the failure resulted, or could have resulted, in a risk to any individual of serious injury or death.

      1. The chief executive must investigate a building failure on the request of the Minister, but the Minister must not request an investigation unless the Minister reasonably considers that the requirements are satisfied.

      2. The chief executive must, as soon as is reasonably practicable, give written notice to the building owner of the investigation of a building failure, but the notice need not be given before any powers of investigation are exercised.

      3. A building failure may be investigated under this section more than once (for example, in 1 or more follow-up investigations after an earlier investigation ends).

      Notes
      • Section 207C: inserted, on , by section 20 of the Building Amendment Act 2019 (2019 No 27).