On the day of your inspection, an inspector will contact the site contact in the morning to arrange a time to do the inspection.

Please ensure that there’s suitable signage in place to help our inspectors find your site, particularly in rural or remote areas.

Onsite requirements

Documentation

For an inspection to proceed you must have the approved building consent documents

  • available on site, and
  • in a condition where they can be read, so that the inspector can check and reference details while doing the inspection.

Consented documents can be either

  • electronic on a device with a minimum screen size equivalent to an A4 piece of paper, OR
  • a clear readable printed copy (you will need to provide these yourself as we no longer print documents for customers).

This allows all contractors working on the job and our inspectors to view the documents and ensure the building work is completed to plan. If we arrive on site and the documentation is not available or doesn’t meet the above conditions then we won’t be able to carry out your inspection. We may however charge you for our visit.

Site inductions

It’s helpful to have someone on site during the inspection to answer any questions the inspector may have. However someone must also be available onsite for an inspection where

  • site inductions are required by the contractor’s site safety requirements, or
  • your building is occupied to allow access to your building.

Occupied buildings

If your building is occupied and you aren’t available at the time of your inspection you will need to

  • reschedule the inspection, or
  • arrange someone else to be there on your behalf.

Leaving instructions on how to enter is not sufficient – someone must be present.

If an inspector turns up at the appointed time and nobody is available you may still be charged the inspection fee, and you’ll need to rebook the inspection.

Inspecting the building work

While the inspector is onsite they’ll the check the work that has been completed against the consented documents.

To pass inspection, the inspector must be satisfied on reasonable grounds that the work completed complies with your building consent and the provisions of the building code (see inspection types above for further details).

Inspection outcome

After the inspection has finished the inspector will record the outcomes on the inspection notice. A copy of this notice will be sent to the

  • site contact
  • project manager, and
  • owner.

When an inspection outcome shows as fail – depending on what has been failed by the inspector, work may be able to carry on. The inspection notice will clearly state

  • what work needs to be fixed, and
  • any conditions to work that can be continued until the failed work has been fixed and reinspected.

An inspection can be failed where

  • documentation needs to be supplied to enable the inspector to make a decision on whether the completed work meets requirements
  • a minor piece of work that has no impact on ongoing work is failed – work can continue on with the inspection notice clearly stating what failed work needs to be inspected as part of the next inspection
  • work is not completed to the consented plans.

Where building work done is not as consented, this will need to be

In many cases another inspection will be needed to check remedial work. This will be charged as an additional inspection and invoiced to you for payment before your code compliance certificate can be issued.

If the work is not fixed to comply with the consent and building code, a notice to fix may be issued.