Restricted Building Work

If you’re doing or supervising building or design work as part of the construction or alteration of residential buildings, this work may be classified as ‘restricted building work’ (RBW). You must be a licensed building practitioner in the appropriate class to do or supervise this type of work this was introduced into the Building Act in 2012.

Restricted Building Work (RBW) is design and building work that can only be carried out or supervised by a Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP) or Owner/Builder, due to it being critical to the integrity of a residential building. In the context of RBW, design work is the preparation of drawings, specifications or other documents for the purposes of Consent. Registered Architects and Chartered Professional Engineers are automatically treated as LBPs licensed in the design class and can therefore also carry out, supervise or design RBW.

It is the responsibility of ‘design LBP’s including registered architects or chartered professional engineers, to ensure their Memoranda (Certificates of Design Work) covers all work they have designed. It is the responsibility of the owner to include all Memoranda (Certificates of Design Work) that collectively cover all the RBW, in the consent application.

Building work that is RBW can only be carried out or supervised by a person licensed in the relevant trade class or by an Owner/Builder. For example, a person licensed in the carpentry class may also carry out or supervise: the construction of concrete foundations and/or pile foundations and/or the installation of lightweight profiled metal roofing.

Information regarding restricted building work can be found here