Consumer protection measures

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Residential buildings can include tiny houses that are on permanent foundations and granny flats that are not greater than 70 square meters in floor area.

Consumer protection measures related to residential building work:

1. You must provide a written contract for residential building work costing $30,000 or more (including GST) whenever you are contracting directly with the client (not subcontracting). We recommend you have a contract even if the work will cost less, so everyone understands obligations, requirements and expectations.

2. Before the contract is signed, if the building work is likely to cost $30,000 or more (including GST) or if the client requests it, you must provide:

• The Consumer protection standard checklist [PDF 60KB]
• A Disclosure statement [PDF 88KB], including information about your skills, qualifications, licensing status and any insurance or guarantees you provide.

3. Once the building work has been completed, and regardless of the size of the job, you must provide certain information or documents related to the building work to the homeowner. These include ongoing maintenance requirements, guarantees or warranties and any ongoing insurance policies.

4. You must fix any defects you’ve been told about in writing within 12 months of the work being completed.

5. The homeowner can take action, for up to 10 years, when warranties in the Building Act 2004 have not been met, even if they are not in your contract (these are called implied warranties).

6. You can be fined if you don’t comply with the law.

Who is considered a contractor?

A building contractor is any person or business contracted directly by the client to do residential building work, whether they are doing all or part of this work.

‘Building work’ covers many different trades and is any work for, or related to, the construction, alteration, demolition or removal of a residential building. Note that ‘buildings’ include structures that are not occupied by people, such as fences and retaining walls.

Designers prepare plans and specifications for building work or give advice on compliance with the Building Code. They do not carry out building work and are therefore not classified as building contractors.

For more information read

Section 362B of the Building Act 2004 — legislation.govt.nz

Section 14D of the Building Act 2004 — legislation.govt.nz