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Building Warrant of Fitness

Property owners are responsible for the safety and sanitation of their buildings. Certain systems and features such as fire alarms, lifts and air-conditioning require ongoing monitoring and maintenance.

Where a compliance schedule has been issued for a building, owners must provide a Building Warrant of Fitness (BWOF) annually to verify systems are in working order. This is a statutory declaration made by the building owner that requirements of the Compliance Schedule have been met for the preceding year.

Compliance schedule

A Compliance schedule is an inventory of a building's specified systems. The schedule specifies:

  • inspection, testing and maintenance procedures
  • the frequency of required work and who should perform it.

When you apply for a building consent, you will be asked to supply details of these systems and features on the application form. You will be required to supply specific details of equipment location and details of proposed testing and maintenance procedures.

Any changes to the approved building consent specified systems need to be covered by an amendment or minor variation. The addition or omission of a specified system not approved in the building consent will require an amendment. Note the installation of a specified system not included in the building consent will require a Certificate of Acceptance so any changes need to be notified to the Building Consent Authority prior to works being undertaken.

Once the systems have been confirmed, your Compliance Schedule will be issued with the Code Compliance Certificate.

If this is a new, not amended, Compliance Schedule, the Council will also issue you a Compliance Schedule Statement which provides details about the:

  • building
  • use of the building
  • owner
  • building systems covered by the Compliance Schedule.

Owner responsibilities

For the first year, you must display the Compliance Schedule Statement in a public place in the building.

Every year after that you must:

  1. Issue a BWOF - To do this you must first ensure that all requirements of the Compliance Schedule have been satisfied. This will include inspections by an independently qualified person (IQP) for each of the system's features.
  2. Display a copy of the BWOF - This must be displayed in a public place in the building.
  3. Send BWOF and IQP certificates to the Council - The original BWOF must be accompanied by all IQP certificates required by the Compliance Schedule, and the fee.

In addition to inspections by independently qualified persons, the owner is often required to perform inspections at regular intervals.

Records of the following must be kept together for two years and produced when requested for audit purposes:

  • inspections by independently qualified persons
  • inspections by the owner
  • the Compliance Schedule.
Updated 7 August 2024