The Building Act states that an owner must obtain a building consent from Council before doing work.

You, as the owner, must advise the (Building Consent Authority) BCA when work is completed and apply for a code compliance certificate (CCC), (although in reality this is likely to be delegated to your builder or project manager). The BCA will then make a final inspection and issue you with a CCC if satisfied on reasonable grounds that the completed work complies with your consent documentation.

Application form - Code Compliance Certificate

The Council shall issue a Code Compliance Certificate (CCC) if it is satisfied on reasonable grounds that the building work complies with the Building Consent.

Reasonable grounds – whether there are reasonable grounds for issuing a CCC will vary from building to building.

Aspects to take into account are:

• the Council’s own inspections.
• the skill and experience of the person who did the work.
• a ‘Producer Statement’ from the builder or person who did the work.  Factors to take into account regarding ‘Producer Statements’ include:
• whether the person making the statement can be sure that the work was properly done.
• any other relevant matters.

If the BCA is not satisfied, you will be issued with a notice to fix that lists what work must be corrected before the CCC can be granted.
 
You are legally required to make sure the work on the notice is fixed and advise the council when everything is done. You may have to go back to your contract with your builder and see who is responsible for the work that needs fixing. The council will inspect and consider whether or not a CCC can be issued once you advise it that you have fixed the problems.

There is a considerable emphasis on getting a CCC under the 2004 Building Act. There are several significant advantages in doing so.

• Should you want to sell your house, not having a CCC could be a major obstacle – sale and purchase contracts are often conditional on a CCC having been granted.
• You won’t have the peace of mind of having the ‘final sign off’ on the quality of the finished building.

What can the applicant do if the Council refuses to issue a Code Compliance Certificate?

Options include:

• giving the Council additional grounds for issuing the CCC i.e. providing ‘Producer Statements’, opening up work, supplying an investigative report from a suitably qualified person.
• altering the building as necessary to satisfy the Council.
• apply to the ‘Department of Building & Housing’ for a determination that the work complies with the Building Code.

Where no progress has taken place for a number of years and owners call Council for a final inspection:

• 
  an inspection will be carried out to assess if a CCC can be issued.
• if the Council are unable to satisfactorily determine that all work complies with the Building Code, then a building consultant may be employed by the Council at the owner’s cost.
• from the consultant’s report, Council will then assess if a CCC or a ‘Notice to Fix' will be issued.
• a conditional CCC may be issued or excluding items that cannot be seen or those items whose durability period has passed.
• if the project has a monolithic type cladding, then a more detailed check will be necessary and may result in Council declining to issue a Code Compliance Certificate. More information is available on Monolithic Claddings.

For more information about Code Compliance Certificate's please contact Corinne Hamlin at Wairoa District Council on (06) 838 7309.