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Building Act 2004

Preliminary provisions - Interpretation - Meanings of building product and building method

9A: Meaning of building product

You could also call this:

“A building product is something that could be part of a building or is officially declared as one.”

In this law, a building product is something that you would expect to be used as part of a building. The Governor-General can also officially say that something is a building product, even if it’s not usually used in buildings.

Sometimes, the Governor-General might say that something isn’t a building product, even if you would normally think it is.

When deciding if something could be used as part of a building, you need to think about:

What it’s usually used for
What the maker or seller says it’s for
What people say it can be used for
How it’s shown to people and what they might use it for because of that

These things are important to think about, but they’re not the only things that matter. You can think about other things too.

If the Governor-General makes a decision about what is or isn’t a building product, it becomes part of the law. You can find out more about how this works in Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS750502.

Topics:

Housing and property > Home safety and repairs

Environment and resources > Climate and energy

Business > Industry rules

9: Building: what it does not include, or

“Things that are not counted as buildings under the law, like power poles, cranes, boats, and scaffolding.”

9B: Meaning of building method, or

“A building method is a way of using things to build or do building work, which can be officially approved or rejected by the government.”

Part 1 Preliminary provisions
Interpretation: Meanings of building product and building method

9AMeaning of building product

In this Act, building product means a product that—
could reasonably be expected to be used as a component of a building; or
is declared by the Governor-General by Order in Council to be a building product.

However, a product that would otherwise be a building product under subsection (1)(a) is not a building product if it is declared by the Governor-General by Order in Council not to be a building product.
In determining whether something could reasonably be expected to be used as a component of a building, the following are relevant considerations:
the purposes for which the thing is ordinarily used:
the purposes for which the manufacturer or supplier intends the thing to be used:
the purposes for which the thing is represented as being used for:
the purposes for which the thing is likely to be used (because of the way in which it is presented or for any other reason).

The matters listed in subsection (3) are relevant, but not determinative, considerations and do not limit what may be considered.
An Order in Council made under this section is secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

Notes

Section 9A: inserted, on 7 September 2022, by section 7 of the Building (Building Products and Methods, Modular Components, and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2021 (2021 No 21).