Draft Dangerous, Affected and Insanitary Buildings Policy 2018

Consultation now closed

The Council adopted the Dangerous, Affected and Insanitary Buildings Policy on 7 November 2018.

The policy has been prepared under the Building Act 2004 and once adopted will replace the existing policy which was approved in August 2011.

The overall approach in the draft policy states the Council will not know if a building is dangerous or insanitary until a complaint is made, or we receive information about a particular building from the occupants of a building or neighbours nearby.

Given this, the Council will continue to rely primarily on complaints and observations from Council officers.

The draft policy confirms the Building Act’s requirements for determining whether a building is dangerous and/or insanitary or affected (for the purposes of the Act), and specifies the Council’s assessment process when complaints are received.

Also included in the draft policy are:

• matters which need to be taken into account prior to identifying dangerous, insanitary and affected buildings.

• action to be taken on dangerous and insanitary buildings including notice requirements and actions required where the building is considered to be of immediate danger.

• A matrix for assessing risk, processes for working with building owners, record keeping and the approach to heritage buildings.