By Andrew Skinner - 17 Jun 2021
On 3 June 2021 Parliament passed the Building (Building
Products and Methods, Modular Components and Other Matters)
Amendment Bill ( Bill), which is the
first phase of the wider building system legislative reform
programme that aims to "lift the efficiency and quality of building
work and provide fairer outcomes if things go wrong".
The Bill amends the Building Act 2004 and establishes a
framework for important changes in three main areas:
- A new regime to ensure that a minimum set of information on
building products is provided to support better informed
decision-making by the building industry
- A new modular component manufacturer certification scheme to
enable faster, more consistent building consent approaches
- A strengthened product certification scheme (known as
CodeMark).
MBIE is currently in the process of developing the regulations
that will provide the details for the above changes and has
recently released a discussion document outlining various proposals
for the changes.
Minimum Building Product Information
Requirements
A building product supplier may be liable for any claims that
they make about their products but until now there has been no
obligation on a supplier to actually make any claims about building
code performance. In MBIE's view, this gap in the law has
contributed to a large degree of variation and inconsistency in the
type, quality and credibility of information about different
building products. To close this gap, the new legislative
framework sets out a mandatory obligation on manufacturers and
suppliers to ensure that the products they supply meet certain
information requirements, together with a penalty regime to enforce
those provisions.
What building products will this new regime apply
to?
The definition of "building product" used in the Bill is very
broad and refers to "any product that could be reasonably expected
to be used as a component of a building". This definition may
potentially apply to thousands of products and building supplies
merchants will be particularly interested in the scope of this
regime.
MBIE's discussion document seeks feedback on the regime applying
to those building products that:
- Contribute to "restricted building work"; or
- Would require a building consent in relation to the product
being installed.
Products for which the scope and limitations do not include any
restricted building work in relation to the product or any building
consent in relation to the product would not be considered a
building product.
What information needs to be supplied?
At this stage MBIE has advised that the information required
will include:
- A description of the building product
- The details of the manufacturer or importer, including a New
Zealand business number, or a global location number where
applicable
- The expected building code performance of a building product
within the scope and limitations of use
- Any design and installation requirements
- Any maintenance requirements of a building product
- Any warranty or guarantee provided for the building
product
- A statement as to whether a product is subject to a warning or
ban under the Building Act.
The critical new requirement above is the expected building code
performance of a building product within the scope and limitations
of use. Some manufacturers already make building code
performance claims in their product technical statements, but this
requirement will be new for others.
The difficulty in preparing this information will vary greatly
depending upon the complexity of the building product. For
some simpler products, it may be enough to simply state the
attributes and standards relevant for the product. However,
for more complex products (such as frames and trusses or roofing
systems), further analysis will be needed, especially where those
products rely on other third party products for performance.
MBIE intends to provide guidance to support manufacturers and
importers to meet their obligations in relation to this
requirement.
Will the information requirements apply equally to
manufacturers and retailers?
One of the immediate concerns when the Bill was introduced was
that there appeared to be no recognition of the different
responsibilities between a manufacturer of a building product and a
merchant distributing building products. MBIE has recognised
that manufacturers and suppliers have different responsibilities
and that retailers cannot be expected to confirm the accuracy of
the technical detail regarding a building product. On that
basis the information responsibilities will be different for
manufacturers and retailers:
- Suppliers responsible for the manufacture or
import of a building product must collate, produce and
disclose the required product information in accordance with the
information requirements
- Suppliers responsible for the distribution and/or
retail only of a building product must ensure that those
products meet information requirements and that the information is
available to all those they distribute or sell the product to
before it is sold.
At first glance, distributors and retailers will be relieved
that their responsibility is limited to checking the information is
available. However, the potential scope of this checking
exercise will be of concern especially given the wide range of
building products covered. Merchants that stock a large range
of products will need to develop processes and may need to employ
further staff to check the information for each product is
available before it is sold. It soon becomes obvious that
there will be a significant duplication of effort amongst the
merchants undertaking this task, which may add further costs into
an already stretched building system. If manufacturers and
importers are obliged to prepare and make the information
available, it does seem somewhat unnecessary to then also require
the merchants to further check that the information has been
prepared.
When does the new regime come into effect?
The regulations for the information requirements are currently
being prepared. It is then proposed that there will be an 18
month transitional period in order to provide the sector with
sufficient time to make the changes required to their systems and
processes.
There will be an opportunity for manufacturers and retailers to
comment on the draft regulations in due course. It will be
important for manufacturers and retailers to provide feedback on
the regulations so that MBIE is fully aware of the potential impact
of this new regime.