Building owners with potentially vulnerable buildings to be contacted as part of new building standards

Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) is set to start contacting the owners of buildings identified as being potentially unsafe in an earthquake.

QLDC Building Services Manager Chris English advised that the Kaikōura and Christchurch earthquakes have brought the seismic nature of the South Island and Queenstown Lakes to the forefront, highlighting the need for further safety measures.

“Public safety is paramount and to take steps to ensure this, we’ve now completed a high-level assessment of all building stock within the district and identified a list of potentially vulnerable buildings,” Mr English said. 

Approximately 45 buildings have been identified as potentially earthquake prone in the district. They were identified using an approach set out by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and as part of the Government’s Building (Earthquake-prone buildings) Amendment Act 2016 requirements for high and medium seismic risk areas.

Mr English advised that the number of potentially earthquake prone buildings is comparably small compared to other cities and towns.

“With the amount of development that has occurred throughout the Queenstown Lakes district many older unreinforced masonry buildings have either been replaced or strengthened already,” said Mr English.

To ensure the list is accurate, QLDC will be sending letters to owners asking for evidence that their building has either been strengthened to at least 34% of the new building standard or that it is outside MBIE’s profiling categories. Building owners will be asked to supply this evidence within six weeks of receiving the letter.

“If evidence cannot be supplied, owners will receive a formal notice asking for either an Initial Seismic Assessment or a Detailed Seismic Assessment,” he said.

“We will also be seeking formal feedback from the public in early 2019 about the list of buildings and thoroughfares which have been categorised as priority or high risk,” said Mr English.

Details on the public consultation process will be available soon. 

ENDS.

For specific details about the Building (Earthquake-prone buildings) Amendment Act 2016, please visit https://www.building.govt.nz/managing-buildings/managing-earthquake-prone-buildings.

For general information about this media release, please contact the QLDC Communications team via communications@qldc.govt.nz or call 03 441 1802.