Rapid Building Assessor programme
Last updated: 1 November 2024
The Rapid Building Assessor programme ensures that Aotearoa New Zealand has enough experts ready to complete rapid building assessments when there has been damage to buildings because of an emergency event.
MBIE has several legal obligations to coordinate, train and maintain the national capability of Rapid Building Assessors, ensuring there is sufficient availability, expertise and leadership across the country, and there are consistent approaches to deploying or mobilising Rapid Building Assessors in the event of an emergency.
Rapid Building Assessors
Rapid Building Assessors are qualified building officials who can be deployed to carry out rapid building assessments. There are different tiers of Rapid Building Assessors:
- Tier 1 Technical Leads
- Tier 2 Team Leaders
- Tier 3 Assessors.
Rapid Building Assessors are generally building officials or engineers. They must meet certain competencies and complete the MBIE rapid building assessment training programme.
Teams of Rapid Building Assessors assess damaged buildings and existing or potential hazards. They record details of the damage and assign appropriate placards to buildings to identify use, for example if entry to a building is restricted or prohibited.
They often work in dynamic situations across changing environments. They can be deployed to unfamiliar areas with others that they may not know.
Rapid Building Assessors are also likely to encounter people who have been displaced or traumatised. This can make for a stressful working environment.
MBIE maintains a register of trained Rapid Building Assessors.
Watch our video on Role of a Rapid Building Assessor.
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Drone shot of Auckland City clifftops. Building Performance logo and video title ‘Building Emergency Management’ appears on screen. Jeremy Neven from Granite Ridge Consulting is seated in a low-lit office space talking to the camera.
Audio
Rapid Building Assessors obviously are an integral part of the whole wider system of responding. It's a natural progression and follow on from ensuring that people are safe first and foremost, to then ensuring that they have a safe place to reside or a roof over their head. It's a basic function of what we need, and the Rapid Building Assessors play an integral role in that.
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Clare Botha from MBIE sits in a low-lit office space, speaking to the camera. Drone footage over a New Zealand river. Helicopter footage of Auckland clifftops.
Audio
MBIE trains Rapid Building Assessors; we train those Rapid Building Assessors to ensure that we have the correct professionalism, capacity, and capability to be able to respond after an emergency event.
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Paul Campbell from WSP appears, seated in an office talking to the camera. A graphic showing the three tiers of Rapid Building Assessor capability appears on the screen. Drone shot over a New Zealand city in the rain, showing some flooding. Helicopter footage of Auckland clifftops. Back to Paul Campbell speaking in the office.
Audio
There are three tiers of capability that we're looking for. So, Tier Three is an entry level and there is training material available online for that. Tier Two is what we call team leaders in the field. That's face-to-face training - it's an all-day training session. And then Tier One, they help manage and run an event. All three of those tiers have what we call a competency framework involved. So, what that means is you need to possess both technical skills and you need to possess people skills. Now depending on what tier you're going for, there's different levels of experience that we also require. It’s also really important to understand that it's about people, so one of the skills sets we look for is people skills and being able to interact with people.
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Rori Green, geotechnical engineer sits in a low-lit office space, speaking to the camera. Helicopter shot of a collapsed cliff face in Auckland. Back to Rori speaking in the office.
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I've been a geotechnical RBA in two events now and it's been an incredibly rewarding experience to know that I can use my expertise to be able to help my community, to go out there and make those inspections and make sure that people are safe in their homes.
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Richard Knudsen from Buller District Council, sits in a low-lit office space, speaking to the camera.
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You're helping the community, you're helping people that are under stress and just a major event that their lives are shattered, so it's actually showing empathy. The biggest thing you have to have is empathy for what's happening. Westport, we've had three events - we've had properties in Westport that have been affected three times. It's huge to go back to a property that's someone's been affected but they know that you're on their side.
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Helicopter footage of collapsed cliffs in Auckland. Paul Campbell sits in an office, speaking to the camera.
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For me personally, as an RBA assessor the work’s hard, there is an immense amount of pride and personal satisfaction in being able to help your fellow citizens and communities in their hour of need, we have the skill sets to do this, and someone has to step up.
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Jeff Fahrensohn from Auckland City Council stands in a well-lit room with a colourful bird and native fauna picture behind him. Helicopter footage of Auckland City and clifftops. Up close shot of a flood affected property showing an upturned tree and flood debris. Back to shot of Jeff speaking in the office.
Audio
Looking back at the events where people have trusted us with the information in terms of the damage to their houses, whether it was safe enough for them to live in it, I'm giving them guidance and advice and support at the time when they really need it. (It) does bring a great sense of pride to our work. I thoroughly recommend anybody to become a Rapid Building Assessor, you've got to understand that it's hard work, it's not for everybody but it is very rewarding.
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Text on screen says, ‘keen to know more? Visit www.building.govt.nz’. The Building Performance logo appears on the screen.
Deploying Rapid Building Assessors
Rapid Building Assessors are deployed when there has been damage to buildings because of an emergency event.
State of national emergency
Under a state of national emergency, MBIE may organise the deployment of registered Rapid Building Assessors and may cover deployment costs.
Once deployed, Rapid Building Assessors will be managed by the local response team who has the responsibility for leading rapid building assessment operations for their area.
The local territorial authority may take the responsibility for costs (such as food, transport on the ground, and accommodation). This is usually organised through the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC).
State of local emergency
Under a state of local emergency or designation, the local EOC will manage the rapid building assessment operation. Usually this will be able to be completed using local Rapid Building Assessors. If additional support is required, the EOC should contact MBIE for help with the deployment of more resources.
MBIE's Rapid Building Assessor Competency Framework
It is important that Rapid Building Assessors have the competencies required to make quick decisions about buildings that may have been damaged after an emergency event.
MBIE has developed a new competency framework for Rapid Building Assessors. The Rapid Building Assessor Competency Framework specifies the technical competencies, practical experience and personal attributes required for:
- Tier 1 Technical Leads
- Tier 2 Team Leaders
- Tier 3 Assessors.
Download the Rapid Building Assessor Competency Framework [PDF 825KB]
Rapid Building Assessor training
MBIE is responsible for the Rapid Building Assessor training programme at a national level to ensure that:
- professional learning and development approaches for training are applied
- Rapid Building Assessors are trained using approved collateral and content
- consistency in approaches is taken to building assessments across the country
- there is a national register of trained Rapid Building Assessors available for nationwide deployment
- competency standards for Rapid Building Assessors are maintained.
MBIE will ensure that the training programme is regularly reviewed to consider innovations and learnings from recent events.
Updated training programme for Tier 2 and Tier 3 Rapid Building Assessors
MBIE have commenced the rollout of a refreshed training programme for applicants who meet the competency requirements as Tier 2 and Tier 3 assessors. Training sessions are prioritised according to regional needs and existing assessor numbers.
The training includes:
- legislative frameworks relating to managing buildings in an emergency
- knowledge of roles and responsibilities
- health, safety, and wellbeing
- rapid building assessment overview and scenario training
- information systems and document management (eg how to complete assessment forms)
- dealing with people.
Become a Rapid Building Assessor
To become a registered Tier 2 or Tier 3 Rapid Building Assessor you need to:
- meet the competencies set out in MBIE's Rapid Building Assessor Competency Framework, and
- complete the training programme.
For Tier 2 assessors, this involves:
- completing the online learning modules available at: Building Performance: All courses
- completing an in-person scenario-based training session facilitated by MBIE.
For Tier 3 assessors, this involves:
- completing the online learning modules available at: Building Performance: All courses
- participating in any in-person scenario-based training session facilitated by the local territorial authority or MBIE.
Once training has been completed, Rapid Building Assessors are added to the MBIE register and MBIE will issue them with an ID card.
Rapid Building Assessors must maintain their competency in order to stay on the register and are expected to be available for deployment when needed.
Contact
To register your interest or discuss training needs for your area, email buildingemergencymanagement@mbie.govt.nz