The government, in 2024, has announced a focus on making it easier to make changes to approved building consent documentation once the consent has been issued. The changes will allow alternative products to be substituted on site should they become more expensive or difficult to source without slowing down or halting building work while these changes are approved by your Building Consent Authority (BCA). It is hoped that these changes will reduce stoppages in construction saving time and money.
Changes have been announced to three of the building regulations to facilitate these changes.
- Building (Forms) Amendment Regulations 2024 amends the regulations to allow building consent applicants to submit alternative building products for pre-approval as a part of their building consent application.
- Building (Minor Variations) Amendment Regulations 2024 amends the regulations to clarify the definition of a minor variation for changes being made after the building consent has been issued
- Building (Minor Customisations) Regulations 2024 amends the regulations to allow for minor changes to be made to a MultiProof Approval during the building consent application stage
All of these changes will come into force on 30 September 2024.
Changes to the Form 2 Building Consent Application Form
From the 30th September any person making a building consent application or an amendment application through the Simpli Portal will be able to upload alternative documentation to obtain pre-approval for possible product substitutions during construction. This will be allowed for with additional document categories that applicants will be able to upload against.
Figure 1: Example of new Document Categories in the Form 2 in the Simpli Portal
Simpli's online forms have also been updated to match the updates issued by MBIE to their Form 2 and required in the legislation.
Information for Building Consent Authorities
Additional to the Form 2 changes, Building Consent Authorities will need to consider how they record the assessment and pre-approval of alternative plans and specifications and how they ensure the final Code Compliance Certificate documentation reflects what products were actually installed in the building.
Additionally working with designers and builders on an efficient way to present alternative product information for consent and approved alternative product information on site will ensure that officers time is used efficiently. It is recommended that a list of alternative approved products is created as part of the consent documentation and made easily accessible to inspectors on site.
Information for Customers
Building consent applicants should be aware of both the risks and benefits of submitting alternative product information for pre-approval. The more alternative documentation submitted as part of the consent process the longer it will take a consenting officer to assess the application and the more RFIs that are likely to be generated. This is likely to add time and cost to your consent application.
When submitting alternative documentation, applicants should be acutely aware of the time and cost implications of submitting this documentation and only submit alternatives where there is evidence it will provide added benefit (eg. Save time and cost) during construction.
Applicants should also consider how this alternative documentation is presented to ensure the document sets do not dramatically increase in size and are still easy for consenting officer to manage when assessing the consent and when inspecting construction on site.
Changes to the definition of minor variations is a clarification of the existing definition to make it easier to decide whether your change is a minor variation or not. If you are still unsure, you can use Simpli's minor variation tool or speak to your local council. The process for assessing and approving minor variations, however, remains the same and you should still speak to your inspector or contact your local council before making any unconsented changes during construction, to get approval for your variation.
Good communication throughout the build process will remain vital to ensuring that Building Consent Authorities meet their obligations under the legislation and construction runs smoothly, without any additional costs, achieving the desired outcomes of these changes.