Builder Licensing update

  Licensed Building Practitioners regime

The die is cast - Licensing is here to stay!

Licensing for specific roles and skills in the construction process will be mandatory from 1st March 2012. The scheme is one of the reforms of the Building Act 2004 which ensures that homes and buildings are designed and built right the first time. This will be a permanent part of the future construction industry, and the scheme is designed to lift skills and productivity and set the benchmark for best practice.

Licensing has been revised several times and the latest announcement on the final shape of the scheme now focuses on licensed skills for stand-alone houses and small to medium sized apartment buildings. So if you are involved in house building or apartments you are going to have to bite the bullet and get licensed if you want to remain at the top of your chosen trade.

Overview

These recently amended Government rules state that in the future several parties to a building contract must have a special licence to be eligible to work on a site or be involved in the site supervision or design process of restricted work – restricted work is work requiring a Building Consent.

The areas of responsibility needing to have a licence are

• Designer
• Foreman/site supervisor/project manager (called Site Lead)
• Trade skills including:

·         Carpenter

·         Brick & Blocklaying

·         External plastering

·         Roofer

Licensing classes for Concrete Structure, Steel Structure, and Foundation will be introduced early 2010

In all cases, one licence per skill per project is to be identified on the building consent document & the process for that and the site monitoring will be part of the BCA’s statutory role when it all becomes mandatory in 2012.

Streamlining of the licensing scheme is expected in 2010 and includes making licensing faster, easier and cheaper for trade qualified building practitioners.

Although not compulsory until 2012, Licensing is operating already and there are a number of licensed people out there who are using this as part of their marketing. If you want to know whether your opposition is a Licensed Building Practitioner there is an on-line public register with details of their licensing classes and this can be found at www dbh.govt.nz/lbp-register.

About 20,000 building practitioners are expected to be licensed by the time restricted building work takes effect in 2012. Currently there are over 1000 LBPs. This brings key construction roles in line with other statutory registration skills like electricians, plumbers, gasfitters, engineers and architects.

 Getting Licensed

Despite all the publicity, that’s the question that several of our readers have requested we write about in this edition. So in simple layman’s terms here’s how you go through the process of applying for a licence.

The various trade and skill roles that require a license, as outlined earlier, each have an exact definition and these are on the DBH web site as well as the licensing documentation.

All the necessary forms that have to be filled out to get each of the separate licences are available from DBH or can be downloaded from their web site. Note that you cannot submit an electronic version of your details.

The forms all have accompanying guidance notes, which are a description of what to cover to help you fill them out. These forms provide evidence to prove that you are a competent person in your specialist field. Such evidence includes work history, such as a CV, a record of details associated with selected recent projects and referees who can verify that you have competently carried out the work.

Getting a Carpentry Licence

To gain a carpentry license, a working carpenter is required to provide performance indicators in four areas

• understand the current regulations of the building industry
• have knowledge of current building and trade practice
• carry out planning and scheduling
• carry out carpentry work

Firstly you are expected to understand the current regulations affecting the building industry. There is a comprehensive supplementary publication of all the current details titled “Understanding the regulatory environment” for carpentry. This publication, divided into six sections, covers all the information you need to know and is complete with a glossary of terms and self-assessment questions and answers.

Your form submission in this area of regulations, where they have given you all the details, complete with questions and answers, then requires you to

• Explain the purpose of [examples given]

• Describe the key features of [examples given]
• Describe the roles and responsibilities [examples given]
• Describe the process for [examples given]
• Explain the importance of [examples given]

The next area of coverage is that you, as a carpenter, need to prove knowledge of current building trade practice. To meet this requirement you fill in the carpentry license class form to “provide your relevant work history starting with your current or most recent position and working backwards.” Details here focus on the range of work and your responsibilities.

More feedback is required on your work roles with these further details entered on more forms but this time focused on two projects. Such details on each of these two projects cover the size, type and complexity of the two buildings complete with

• your role in the work
• how you worked with your subcontractors
• your involvement in the building consent process
• site safety practices in place
• specific details of what you did on these projects identified through a tick box list of activities, and... 
• details of the problems you had to deal with on the project.

Further details [on another form] about site operations on these two specific projects are required covering quite an extensive range of building activities. This time the information to be presented covers the detailed steps followed in each activity including

• site preparation and profile set out

• foundations and flooring
• walls and roof framing
• exterior cladding
• internal linings
• exterior joinery
• concrete structures
• involvement with precast and fabricated items

Your description must be accurate, orderly and detailed but it’s stuff you know, so you can easily cover it off even if your writing skills aren’t the best. However, the words are censored and very important. Somebody really takes notice of what is presented because this is the basis of your licensing application, so your terminology must be correct.

The process is reasonably straight forward, there are no surprises, nothing really terrifying and all the questions are grouped and laid out on the pages and pages of forms so they are easily understood. There is a ton of support including written lists of frequently asked questions and answers, helpdesk phone numbers and even opportunities for face to face discussions [some at an extra cost], appeals and endless supporting literature so there is nothing to stop you at least requesting the forms!

We strongly recommend you apply earlier, not later. Coming to deadline will see everyone else who has put things off trying to jam through at the last minute, and if you have trouble getting licensed you can reapply in plenty of time. And once licensed, you can then use it in your own marketing.

At this stage it is not compulsory to have a qualification to get a licence because it is recognised that there is a mature workforce who do not want to have to go back and prove they have skills achieved through years of work experience. However for those that already have a carpentry qualification there are benefits through shortcuts in the form filling process in recognition of their certified trade skills. The section covering the breakdown of steps in specific activities does not have to be filled out by trade qualified applicants.

Supporting evidence of certified copies of qualifications, industry organisation membership and relevant learning activities over the past 3 years are all required as part of this submission process. This allows you to present the best picture of your professional building status and commitment to the building industry. Three referees are required to confirm your competencies in your selected projects to support your application.

Finally, the relevant fees must be attached and they are not cheap. It’s one of the reasons some people have been holding back, particularly if you are applying for more than one licence, which is not uncommon. Joint application forms are there linking ‘Carpentry with Site Lead’ and ‘Carpentry with Design’ to recognise a variety of joint skill sets in the industry.

Once you have a license you go on the national register, but you must maintain it with an annual fee and gain continuing professional development (CPD) points. This has been introduced to ensure your knowledge and skills are kept up-to-date by attending professional body or BRANZ type seminars, product demonstrations, approved in-house training seminars or even additional study, and you have to cover a minimum number of hours’ attendance each year. A list of such approved courses is on the DBH web site linked to the licenses.

The answers to any other questions we have not covered are on the DBH web site ‘Question and Answer’ section. That’s been going for quite some time and will probably cover a lot of the questions that will be going through your mind. The direct link is www.dbh.govt.nz/lbp

Because you asked us to use layman’s language be aware that our words may not necessarily match the precise wording in the legislation. Always refer to the DBH web site www.dbh.govt.nz which has all the details spelled out and correct definitions and terms. Alternatively use their free phone 0800 60 60 50 and ask them to post you a copy.

Also DBH are continuing to issue free publications, electronically delivered if required, to keep all parties up-to-date with changes and explanations of items under their jurisdiction. Again their web site has details of how you can get a hold of these.