A (building) inspector calls…
Published on 05 October 2026
So much of their work is never seen, yet the community relies on it being right — for their safety and for the protection of what is, for most Kiwis, their biggest investment. It’s a heavy load to carry, but Waitaki District Council’s Building Services team is passionate about the things that could go bump in the night — and it is delivering a powerful punch in the world of building inspections.
Building Services Manager Brent Cunningham is rapt that his team is topping the Building Consent System Statutory Performance Dashboard for the South Island, meeting 100% of statutory timeframes, with median processing days sitting at three. They are second only to Kawerau in all of New Zealand.
“We can generally take an inspection the day before and deliver it the next day, which is one of the best turnarounds in the country. Some BCAs (Building Consent Authorities) are out to two weeks to get inspections,” Brent said.
He believes it comes down to being appropriately resourced and doing their level best to be efficient wherever they can. They know people are relying on them to get their jobs done right, because if they don’t, it could endanger lives.
“Our number one priority is people safety,” Brent said “Our job is to ensure that buildings in the district are safe, contribute to the health of the people who use them, and are sustainable.”
Some problems can remain hidden for years, like leaky showers and leaky cladding. “People didn’t know their houses were leaking until they could smell mould, and then they took the wall linings off and the wall frame was just black and rotten,” Brent said.
So the most important things to inspect are anything to do with the safety of the people who use the building.
When asked if that responsibility weighed heavily on him, he admitted “it’s always something that’s on your mind, but you can’t run your business being worried about the risk — you’ve got to have balance. You know, the risk is all part of my job.”
But it is a very technical production line. The team uses a whole range of industry-specific software and tools, and building consents are only part of the job.
“We also inspect swimming pools, do building WOF inspections. We do illegal building work investigations and all that sort of thing,” Brent said “And then tools we use, the guys have a whole bunch of different tools for inspections — moisture meters, thermometers, tape measures and pushy probe things to check ground and all that sort of thing.”
Thank you Brent. We loved your professional description of one of those “pushy probe things”. But jokes aside, Brent and his team take their work extremely seriously. If homes and businesses aren’t built right and there’s an earthquake, or a fire gets out of control because the fire separations in commercial buildings haven’t been built correctly, then it’s not a good scenario.
“It's structural, fire safety, smoke alarms, fire penetrations, firewalls,” Brent said “But also things many people don’t think about, like access in buildings, barriers that stop people falling, all those sorts of things that protect people who use the building and ensure they can do without endangering their health. There’s a lot of liability that can be dished out if stuff doesn’t get built right and starts failing like structural defects.”
Back in the days when Brent carried out inspections, he was doing a final check on a new building that had recently been finished.
“They had missed an inspection, and we found they hadn’t put any of the fire protection equipment in place. That left the wall rendered useless in a fire situation and would not help stop the spread of the blaze. So they basically had to undo a lot of work install the protection and then get us back to inspect.”
And Council’s involvement does not necessarily end when the Code Compliance Certificate is issued. The same organisation maintains the property record and may deal with that building again through future alterations, LIMs, swimming pool inspections, building WOF requirements or other territorial authority functions.
“We’re not just checking a building and disappearing. We’re part of the community as well, and we’ll still be here dealing with that building in 10 or 20 years.”
Ultimately while Waitaki District Council’s building team is focused on ensuring buildings are well planned, constructed and altered – the results of their work are improving the safety of the people who use them.
ENDS
media@waitaki.govt.nz