Regulation 7(2)(g) – Receiving and managing inquiries about building control functions
Last updated: 10 April 2017
MBIE’s guidance on meeting the accreditation requirement
Regulation 7(2)(g) of the Building (Accreditation of Building Consent Authorities) Regulations 2006 (the Regulations) must be read in conjunction with regulations 5 and 6.
The policies and procedures required by regulation 7 must be written and/or electronic, and appropriate for purpose.
A Building Consent Authority (BCA) must ensure that the policies, procedures and system required by regulation 7 are consistently and effectively implemented. BCAs must ensure they record the decisions they make under regulation 7, including the reasons for the decisions, as well as the outcomes.
Checklist for regulation 7(2)(g) outlines the minimum criteria for compliance.
This accreditation requirement is about ensuring customer service support for applicants engaged in the consent process. A BCA must have a policy, procedure and system in place for receiving and managing inquiries about building control functions that enables:
- customers to make inquiries (and ask questions)
- inquiries to be responded to in an appropriate way and timeframe.
A BCA should define what it considers to be an appropriate timeframe and meet that timeframe.
A BCA’s system for receiving and managing inquiries about building control functions does not require them to record all inquiries about a particular consent on the application or property file. This is outside the scope of the accreditation requirement. A BCA may choose to record an inquiry if the staff member receiving it considers it material.
When deciding what is material, a BCA must consider sections 216 and 238 of the Building Act 2004. A complaint about non-compliant work must be taken and summarised to be provided to the Territorial Authority to retain on file.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment does not expect a BCA to accept or respond to inquiries that are racist or otherwise derogatory, or contain abuse or threats against the organisation or staff. Inquiries of this nature may be best dealt with as part of the BCA or wider organisation’s health, safety and security policy, procedure or system.
The Building Act 2004 is available on the Legislation website.