BC Update: No. 3 - Receivership of nationwide Building Certifiers Group Ltd and transfer of files
10 Dec 2004: The Department of Building and Housing* has previously advised that it has been in discussion with the receivers of Nationwide Building Certifiers Group Ltd (Nationwide).
The receivers are now managing the company following their recent appointment. Our objective in this situation has been to minimise, as far as possible, the disruption the receivership has caused to Nationwide’s customers.
This BC Update is to advise that on 6 December the Department received customer files from the receivers. We have now begun the process of facilitating the transfer of Nationwide files to territorial authorities, on behalf of the receivers.
Nationwide has around 1,400 open files. We have engaged extra staff to speed the transfer, however, we expect given the number of files that it will take approximately three weeks to complete the transfer.
We are writing to Nationwide’s customers to advise them of this.
Advice to territorial authorities
Under the Building Act, territorial authorities are required to accept a building certificate issued by Nationwide as establishing compliance with the provisions of the Building Code, unless there is good reason not to. No civil proceedings can be brought against a territorial authority for 'anything done in good faith' in reliance on a building certificate, such as issuing a code compliance certificate.
This means a territorial authority should assess each building certificate on its merits. It would therefore be prudent to check that any Nationwide file relating to the building work is in order, and to conduct a visual inspection of the building work to ensure it matches up with the building certificate.
If Nationwide has not issued any building certificates, but has merely provided inspection reports, then territorial authorities must make an assessment of the building work to determine whether it is 'satisfied on reasonable grounds' that the building work complies with the Building Code.
Accordingly, the Department is advising Nationwide’s customers that territorial authorities may decide to conduct inspections additional to those carried out by Nationwide in order to determine a building’s compliance with the Building Code and that territorial authorities are likely to require a fee for this activity.