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Building Code Compliance Documents

The Department of Building and Housing's Compliance Documents and Building Code Handbook are available for purchase in several different formats, or they can be downloaded for free as PDF files.

New Zealand Building Code Compliance Documents and Handbook

Zealand Building Code Compliance Documents and Handbook

What sort of publication they are: A4 loose-leaf black and white pages.
Who they are for: Building designers, building officials and tradespeople
What they contain: Acceptable Solutions that, if followed, mean that a building will automatically comply with the Building Code. They also contain Verification Methods that provide a means of testing that a building complies with the Building Code. In addition, Compliance Documents contain the relevant Clause of the Building Code to which they relate, a glossary of defined terms, references to other documents and an index. The Building Code Handbook contains information on how the building controls regulatory framework works, current definitions, lists of all standards referenced in the Compliance Documents, Building Code Clauses and a current index for Compliance Documents.

How much they cost:

  • From $10-$158 in hard copy, depending on the size of the document.
  • From $130 on CD-ROM with a year's subscription to updates.
  • Free for PDFs of individual documents without updates.

How to get them:

Download free PDFs of the Compliance Documents

Please read the following important information before accessing the Compliance Documents

A Compliance Document is one way of establishing compliance with a particular clause of the New Zealand Building Code. A design that complies with a Compliance Document must be accepted as complying with the provisions of the Building Code to which the Compliance Document relates. However, complying with a Compliance Document is not the only means of complying with the Building Code. There may be alternative ways to comply with the Building Code.

The Department of Building and Housing may amend or replace the whole, or any part of, any Compliance Document at any time. The Department publicises amendments through its publications Codewords and Building Controls Update. Those who download a Compliance Document should check the record of amendments for that Compliance Document on a regular basis.

Download

Compliance Documents by Building Code clause. These are the latest versions as at 1 September 2008.

Record of amended pages and previous versions (as required by the Building Act 2004)

Previous versions of Compliance Documents that have been amended after 13 April 2005 are available for reference.

Copyright statement

These Compliance Documents are protected by Crown copyright, unless indicated otherwise. The Department of Building and Housing administers the copyright in these documents. You may use and reproduce the documents for your personal use or for the purposes of your business provided you reproduce the document accurately and not in an inappropriate or misleading context. You may not distribute the document to others, or reproduce it for sale or profit.

The Department of Building and Housing owns or has licences to use all images and trademarks in these documents. You must not use or reproduce images and trademarks featured in the documents for any purpose (except as part of an accurate reproduction of the document) unless you first obtain the written permission of the Department of Building and Housing.