Definitions Used

The Act

Building Act 2004 -is a rewrite of the original Building Act 1991. This new act came into force on 24 August 2004. It has undergone several amendments since but the amendment of 2016 is most relevant as it rewrote the rules governing earthquake-prone buildings. The commencement of these new amendments was 1 July 2017.

Potentially EPB

Potentially Earthquake-Prone Building - a term used for buildings which Council has identified as potentially likely to suffer major damage and possible collapse during a moderate earthquake causing injury or death in or near the building or damage to other property.

EPB

Earthquake-Prone Building - a term used for buildings which Council has identified to be likely to suffer major damage and possible collapse during a moderate earthquake causing injury or death in or near the building or damage to other property.

Council

Marlborough District Council - Council's Territorial Authority role which deals with the EPB requirements of The Act. When reading The Act, where a Territorial Authority is referred to, consider it a reference to Council. That is due to MDC being a unitary Council which encompasses all statutory functions of Territorial Authority, Regional Authority, Building Consent Authority.

MBIE

Ministry of Business, Innovation and employment - the ministry responsible for developing EPB process guidance documentation, including the EPB Methodology' and various Forms and other guidance publications.

EPB Methodology

MBIE guidance document for Councils and Engineers in carrying out the requirements of The Act in relation to identifying EPB's and potential EPB's, including seismic engineering assessments.

NBS

New Building Standard - a % value to represent the relative seismic resilience of buildings against a building designed on 1 July 2017 (which achieves 100% NBS). Older buildings will be evaluated against this new building. Any building with 34% means it may be outside the scope for Council to consider as an EPB, whereas if it only achieves 33%, or less, then it will be determined to be an EPB.

Owner

In relation to land and any buildings on the land means the person entitled to the rack rent from the land, or would be so entitled if the land were let to a tenant at a rack rent, and includes the owner in fee simple of the land. There may be multiple owners where a building has been subdivided into multiple properties. This can lead to complications of responsibilities and is very dependent on the engineering advice as to how a building is divided, what parts of the building contain critical weaknesses and whether one or some owners can be responsible but others are not.

EPB Notice

A notice issued by Council under section 133AL of The Act for the purpose of informing people in, or in the vicinity, of the building that it is an earthquake-prone building with a specified time for the strengthening or removal of the building, or part.

EPB Register

A publicly accessible record established and held on MBIE website of buildings throughout NZ which have been identified by Territorial Authorities and which have had an EPB Notice issued for the removal of seismic risk posed to life and other property by a building, or part.

ISA

Initial Seismic Assessment - a seismic assessment supplied by an Engineer in accordance with Part C of the Engineering Assessment Guidelines. It is the recommended first qualitative step in a DSA.

DSA

Detailed Seismic Assessment - a seismic assessment supplied by an Engineer in accordance with Part C of the Engineering Assessment Guidelines. It is a comprehensive quantitative assessment of the strength and deformation capabilities of a building.

CSW

Critical Structural Weakness - the lowest scoring structural weakness determined from a DSA. For an ISA all structural weaknesses are considered to be potential CSW's.

ME

Moderate Earthquake - an earthquake that would generate shaking at the site of the building that is the same duration as, but that is one-third as strong as, the earthquake shaking (determined by normal measures of acceleration, velocity and displacement) that would be used to design a new building at the site if it were designed on 1 July 2017.

UC

Ultimate Capacity - is the probable capacity of a building to withstand earthquake actions and maintain gravity load support assessed by reference to the building as a whole and its individual elements or parts.

EPB Exemption

Council may grant an exemption from the requirements for carrying out seismic work on a building, or part, where it is satisfied the building has the characteristics set out in Schedule 4 of the Building (Specified Systems, Change of Use, and Earthquake-Prone Buildings) Regulations 2005, as at 16 Dec 2019. This is a complicated set of characteristics based on age, construction type, use, level of occupancy, location in relation to other buildings or building types and any other characteristics to satisfy Council.

EPB Exemption Notice

A notice, issued by Council under section 133AL of The Act, for the purpose of informing people in, or in the vicinity, of the building that it is not an earthquake-prone building, or part and that it is exempt from the requirement to carry out seismic work. An EPB Exemption Notice explicitly replaces an EPB Notice.

Building characteristics

As defined in section 10 of Building (Specified Systems, Change the Use, and Earthquake-Prone Buildings) Regulations 2005 as at 19 December 2019. This is a very complicated and involved method of determining whether a building includes certain characteristics based on age, construction type, building type, use, level of occupancy and location in relation to other buildings. Refer also to Section 401C of The Act.

URM

Unreinforced Masonry - masonry (brick, block, stone) without any apparent form of reinforcement or independent lateral support, and includes strengthened URM unless there is evidence the strengthening achieves at least 34% NBS.

Engineer

A structural engineer, chartered under the Chartered Professional Engineers of New Zealand Act 2002, and who has the training, skills and experience to apply the requirements and technical methods set out in the Engineering Assessment Guidelines.

CPEng

A structural engineer, chartered under the Chartered Professional Engineers of New Zealand Act 2002.

EAG

Engineering Assessment Guidelines - is a guidance document for engineers to assess the behaviour of existing buildings and parts and to report the results to building owners and agencies responsible for managing these. These guidelines are an integral part of the EPB Methodology.