Auckland Mayor wants urgent changes to the Building Act
Auckland's mayor is calling for radical and urgent changes to the Building Act.
Phil Goff wants a compulsory insurance or warranty scheme to pay for problems with building work such as leaky homes.
Auckland ratepayers have had to pay $600 million for weather tightness problems because those who did the substandard work disappeared, Mr Goff says.
He also wants a mandatory product register to certify that building products were fit for purpose.
At the moment, each council has to separately examine and certify the same products. Mr Goff's recommendations are part of the Auckland Council's submission to the government on reforming the Building Act.
"The government has put out a discussion paper through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. And we think it's great that they are addressing the question of the Building Code and the Building Act. But these are two submissions, actually one from Auckland Council and one from the Mayoral Housing Task Force, which includes a lot of people from right across the private sector," Mr Goff said.
Reforming the Building Act needed to go further, he said.
Read more onrnz.co.nz