Advice for Canterbury building owners: multi unit residential buildings

The Department of Building and Housing (DBH) have released a document for owners of multi unit residential buildings (here).

The purpose of the document: Advice for Canterbury building owners: Assessing the seismic performance of non-residential and multi unit residential buildings in greater Christchurch is to assist building owners in considering the structural integrity of their buildings, and how the building will be used and repaired in the future.

From the DBH website:

Advice for building owners

Building owners are responsible for ensuring the safety of their buildings. Building owners are encouraged to engage Chartered Professional Engineers (structural) to carry out Detailed Engineering Evaluations on their buildings. This will assist building owners to make informed decisions about the ongoing use and occupation of their buildings.

There is also a publication for engineers:

Guidance for engineers

Engineers should only provide recommendations about the continued use of buildings once a suitable level of investigation has been completed.

The Department has prepared guidance for engineers on what they should include in their building evaluations. This guidance is at a general level only and focuses on what may be required under the Building Act 2004. The document is called: Guidance for engineers assessing the seismic performance of non-residential and multi unit residential building in greater Christchurch.

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