Reporting released last week by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) shows that all priority earthquake prone buildings (EPBs) in New Zealand’s high seismic risk areas have now been identified by local territorial authorities.

Central Otago District and Queenstown Lakes District are classified as Medium Risk areas, and will be assessed in due course. 

The Building Act also divides New Zealand into three seismic risk areas – high, medium and low.

There are set time frames, based on these seismic risk areas. They include time frames for territorial authorities to identify potentially earthquake-prone buildings and for building owners to remediate earthquake-prone buildings.

There is also a category of ‘priority buildings’ in high and medium seismic risk areas. These are buildings that are considered higher risk because of their construction, type, use or location. 

They must be identified and remediated in half the time allowed for other buildings in the area.

The system will also ensure information about earthquake-prone buildings is publicly-accessible through the EPB register.

“The latest figures from the 2020 EPB progress report shows that all priority earthquake-prone buildings have been identified by the 38 territorial authorities located in high seismic risk areas. 

“This is an important milestone, as it means that buildings that pose the greatest risk to public safety or other property have now been identified and will be remediated,” says Janet Blake, Manager of System Strategy and Performance in the Building Performance team at MBIE.

“This is a crucial step in protecting people from harm in future earthquakes.  

“The next step is for high-risk areas to identify non-priority buildings, and for medium risk areas to identify their priority buildings, all by 1 July 2022.”

Priority buildings include those that are considered higher risk because of their construction, type, use or location.  

This includes buildings such as hospitals, schools and emergency centres.  

Buildings come to the attention of territorial authorities (TAs) because they meet certain criteria that indicated that a building could potentially be earthquake prone.  

The TAs then contact the building owners, who have the building assessed. 

The Building (Earthquake-prone Buildings) Amendment Act 2016 introduced a schedule for territorial authorities to report to MBIE on progress toward identifying potentially earthquake-prone buildings. Previously, TAs set their own policy and timeframes.

“These changes were introduced to ensure the way buildings are managed for future earthquakes is consistent and strikes a balance between protecting people; the costs of strengthening; and the impact on New Zealand’s built heritage,” Janet says.

Farm buildings are specifically excluded because of the expected low consequence of failure of these types of buildings.

Farm buildings are those buildings, on farms, that are primarily used for farming activities or an ancillary purpose.

Examples of the types of buildings that can be considered as farm buildings are stables, wool sheds, cow sheds, hay barns, herd homes, implement sheds, milking sheds, fattening units, ancillary buildings and storage buildings.

Buildings on farms that are not related to farming activities should not be considered as farm buildings.

Buildings on farms that are more akin to industrial or manufacturing type facilities should not be considered as farm buildings, for example, manufacturing plants, packhouses, and vineyards. 

However, as these facilities are generally modern buildings, they are unlikely to be earthquake-prone.

This was the third year territorial authorities were required to report on their progress to MBIE. 

The full report is available on the Building Performance website.