Every five years, the Building Act requires us to review our Dangerous and Insanitary Buildings policy. We’ve reviewed how the policy has worked over the last five years and we are proposing some minor changes.

This policy covers how Council will manage situations where a building is considered dangerous as it is likely to cause injury or death or damage to other property in the ordinary course of events. Examples would be if the building was very likely to collapse or if people were unable to escape in a fire.

An insanitary building refers to situations where a building is offensive, or likely to be injurious to health, due to how it is situated or constructed or because it is in a state of disrepair. An insanitary building also includes situations where there are moisture penetration problems, lack of potable water or sanitary facilities. You can read about our proposed changes to the policy here.

Please note that earthquake-prone buildings are covered under a separate part of the Building Act and owners of earthquake-prone buildings are required to do strengthening work within a determined time frame. For more information, on earthquake-prone buildings visit here

This is your chance to have a say on those proposed changes to the policy.

What happens with my feedback?

All the feedback will be analysed and a report with recommendations will be given to Councillors for them to consider before making their final decisions.