Building Consent Authority (BCA): An organisation accredited under the Building Act 2004 to issue building consents—generally the local council.
Restricted Building Work (RBW): Work that can only be carried out or supervised by Licensed Building Practitioners (LBP).
Licensed Building Practitioners (LBP): A professional whose skills have been assessed and who is licensed to perform specific construction tasks.
Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU): A business that is subject to New Zealand’s Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and must ensure the health and safety of people at a place of work.
Permitted activities: Low-impact activities that are unlikely to affect the environment adversely and do not require resource consent.
Building Warrant of Fitness (BWOF): An annual certificate mandated under the Building Act for all buildings except for single residential dwellings that contain specific systems including fire alarms, sprinklers and lifts. The BWOF indicates that these systems have been checked and are operating correctly.
Implied Warranty: The Building Act sets out an implied warranty for all residential building work which lasts 10 years from building completion.
WorkSafe: The regulator overseeing health and safety in the New Zealand workplace as defined in the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Notifiable event: An accident or incident that occurs in a workplace that must be reported to WorkSafe. This includes accidents that result in death, serious injury or illness. It also includes incidents that could have had a serious impact such as fire, electric shock or a structure collapsing.
Contractor: A person or business that is hired to perform a specific task under a contract. They operate independently and are not permanent employees of the company undertaking the project.
Subcontractor: A worker hired by the main contractor to perform a specific role in the project.
Resource consent: The process of gaining permission to perform an activity that might impact the environment as required under the Resource Management Act.
Building Consent: Official approval for a building project to proceed issued by the relevant Building Consent Authority. Most building and major renovation projects require building consent.
Code Compliance Certificate (CCC): A formal certification issued by the Building Consent Authority after building work has been completed. This document confirms the work complies with the building consent that was issued at the start of the project.
