Restricted Building Work and Licensed Building Practitioners
Determine if your project involves restricted building work
If your residential building work contains structural elements or affects the weather tightness of the building, it may be 'restricted building work'. This means only Licensed Building Practitioners (LBP) are permitted to design and carry out the work and must either do or supervise the work, unless the work is being carried out under an owner-builder exemption. For more information please see www.building.govt.nz or www.lbp.govt.nz/lbp.
Licensed Building Practitioners
A person is recorded on the register of Licensed Building Practitioners (LBP) once they have satisfied the Registrar of the Licensed Building Practitioners Board that they meet the standards for their licence class. The classes of LBP licence are:
- Design
- Site
- Foundations
- Brick laying and block laying
- Carpentry
- External plastering
- Roofing
To check if your designer or contractor is currently licensed we recommend that you check the LBP register by searching for their name.
Owner-builder exemption
A person who is an owner-builder in relation to restricted building work may carry out restricted building work without being supervised by a LBP. The Statutory Declaration as to the Owner - Builder Status form (PDF, 61KB) must be completed.
For the purposes of the Building Act you are an owner-builder if you meet the following criteria:
- Has a relevant interest in the land or the building on which the restricted building work is carried out (i.e. ownership); and
- Resides, or intends to reside, in the household unit in relation to which the restricted building work is carried out (this includes a holiday home or bach); and
- Carries out the restricted building work himself or herself or with the assistance of his or her unpaid friends and family members; and
- Has not, under the owner-builder exemption, carried out restricted building work in relation to a different household unit within the previous 3 years.
NOTE: An owner-builder must be an individual and can not be a company.
