• Inspections need to be booked in advance.
  • We aim to carry out inspections within 48 hours (2 working days) of your booking, but may not always be possible due to staff illness etc.
  • We are required to complete at least 80% of building inspections within 3 workings days from the date the inspection is requested.
  • When all building work is finished:
    • book your final inspection, and
    • apply for a code compliance certificate (CCC).

You can view our current booking timeframes on our building home page.

To avoid delays or disappointment, you (or your builder) need to:

  • Book an inspection for when the building work will be ready for checking.
    • You’ll be charged for an extra inspection if the work isn’t finished and the inspection is rebooked.
  • Make sure all work to be inspected is ready by 7.30am on the day of your inspection.
  • Check that there are no outstanding resource consents, amendments, or blocks on your project.
    • We can’t book or carry out an inspection if your project still needs a resource consent that hasn’t been approved—even if your building consent has already been granted.
  • Upload all required documents related to your inspection the day before your inspection to the Required Documents section [PDF, 189 KB] of the AlphaOne portal.

Remote inspections

Remote inspections are only available to our construction partners who are part of the Professional Partnership Programme.

Booking an inspection

You can book an inspections by contacting Customer Services on 0800 SELWYN (735 996).

Please don’t contact the building inspector directly – they can’t take bookings.

You’ll need to provide the following information to make a booking:

  • site address
  • building consent number
  • full name & phone number of contact person on site
  • date the inspection is required
  • type of inspection – ie  pre-pour foundation, drainage, post-wrap, pre-line, etc
  • licensed building practitioner (LBP) details for restricted building work (there may be more than one e.g carpentry AND roofing at a post-wrap)
  • pre-wrap inspections require as-built frame & truss plans to be uploaded to the project before the booking can be accepted

If the inspection is

  • for a new transportable building, please let us know if the inspection needs to be in your yard or onsite.
  • for multiple units - so we can allow the inspector enough time for your inspection.

Also see our information on at the inspection for more details about what to expect during your inspection.

Daily inspection limits & waitlist

We have daily limits on how many inspections can be booked. The limit fluctuates depending on inspector availability.

If we don’t have enough inspectors available on the day you’ve requested, your inspection will join our waitlist.

If a space becomes available on your requested inspection day, we’ll assign inspections from the top of the waitlist. We’ll contact you if this happens so that you can be ready.

Occupied buildings

Someone must be present during the inspection – leaving instructions isn’t enough.

If you can’t be there, you’ll need to either

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

If an inspector turns up at the appointed time and nobody is available

  • you’ll need to book another inspection, and
  • you may still be charged for the inspection.

Smoke alarms

  • All smoke alarms must be checked when doing the final inspection for a solid fuel heater.
  • This means inspectors will need access to every bedroom.

Potable water testing (for new well connections)

  • If you’re using drinking water from a newly connected well, you must provide three separate water test results taken at least one month apart showing that the water is safe to drink.
  • It’s best to start this testing process as early as possible to avoid delays in getting your code compliance certificate (CCC).

Order of inspections

Inspections don’t always happen in the expected order for a number of reasons.

To help keep things moving and avoid delays, we’ll book the inspection you request, even if it is slightly out of sequence.

In these cases you’re still responsible for ensuring

  • that the work is ready by 7.30am on the day of the inspection,
  • inspections are still booked in the appropriate sequence for your build, and
  • that no inspections are missed.

If a required inspection is missed your project may be put on hold and no further inspections booked until its sorted.

Inspections on hold

Your building project will be put on hold when

  • An amendment is being processed – no inspections will happen until it’s approved.
  • An inspection may still go ahead if it can be determined that an inspection won’t affect an active Amendment (case by case)
  • We’re waiting for construction monitoring site notices from your engineer if they haven’t been viewed by the inspector– these are needed to confirm that the work has been done properly and monitored.
  • The building work doesn’t match the approved building consent – unless the inspector has allowed work to continue under conditions.
    • the issue identified will need to be fixed before more inspections can be booked, and
    • if not resolved, you may receive a notice to fix.