62 building consents caught in engineering sign-offs

At least 62 Waipā building consents have been caught up in allegedly fraudulent engineering sign-offs.

Waipā District Council is one of more than 40 councils impacted by the actions of Jonathan Beau Hall of Kodiak Consulting Ltd. Hall has allegedly completed and signed producer statements using the identities of chartered engineers without their permission. Engineering New Zealand and the New Zealand Police are investigating.

Wayne Allan

Producer statements are used in the building consent application process. They provide a professional opinion confirming work has been done in accordance with the Building Code and are used to assist with issuing of building consents and code compliance certificates.

Council staff have now reviewed all potentially compromised projects involving Hall and have identified 62 impacted building consents.

Of those, 20 have been issued a building consent but not a Code of Compliance Certificate. The remaining 42 building consents have been issued with both a building consent and a Code of Compliance Certificate.  These numbers could change if more information becomes available.

Waipā’s group manager growth and regulatory services Wayne Allan said council staff would be contacting all property owners directly over coming days.

“Our focus is on supporting those impacted as much and as quickly as we can. We have a great deal of sympathy for those caught up in this issue.”

 

More Recent News

Artists celebrated at expo

This month’s Art Alive Expo mounted by the Cambridge Society of Arts saw several of the society’s 90 members exhibiting for the first time.     The exhibition was held across three days in the…

Plan change fight starts

New Waikato regional councillors want to stop a water quality plan change before, they say, it bankrupts farmers and sucks billions of dollars out of the regional economy. Newly elected Waipā King Country ward councillors…

Homeless issue raised

Cambridge businesses are calling on the council to solve the issue of people sleeping in vehicles in the town centre. Residents had complained about instances of people getting changed in public and leaving their washing…

Maher elected regional chair

Second-term Thames-Coromandel councillor Warren Maher is the new Waikato Regional Council chair. The Tairua electrical contractor was the only nomination and was unanimously elected in Hamilton today at the council’s inaugural meeting. The position pays…