Commercial and multi-unit buildings with specified systems require a building warrant of fitness, issued annually by the owner and supported by evidence that each system has been inspected and maintained.
It is an obligation owners routinely inherit without understanding, and it surfaces at inconvenient moments — during a sale, after an incident, or when a council audit arrives.
What triggers it
A building requires a warrant of fitness where it contains one or more specified systems — features listed in the Building Act because they are critical to safety.
Common examples:
- Automatic sprinkler systems and fire alarms.
- Emergency lighting and exit signage.
- Fire doors and smoke control systems.
- Lifts and escalators.
- Mechanical ventilation and air conditioning.
- Backflow preventers.
- Automatic doors on escape routes.
- Cable cars.
The compliance schedule, issued by the council, lists which systems the building has and the inspection, maintenance and reporting procedures required for each.
How the annual cycle works
- Independently qualified people inspect and maintain each specified system according to the compliance schedule.
- They issue form 12A certificates confirming the required procedures were carried out.
- The owner issues the building warrant of fitness on the basis of those certificates.
- The warrant is publicly displayed in the building.
- A copy and the supporting certificates go to the council.
The warrant is issued by the owner, not the council. That is the point most often misunderstood — you are certifying, which is why the supporting evidence matters.
Where owners get caught
- Buying a building without checking the compliance schedule and warrant history. The obligation transfers with ownership.
- An outdated compliance schedule that does not match the systems actually installed — common after a fitout added or removed systems without the schedule being amended.
- Tenant works that alter a specified system without the owner knowing. A fitout that moves a sprinkler head or blocks an exit affects the warrant.
- Assuming the tenant handles it. The obligation sits with the owner regardless of what the lease says between the parties.
- Letting it lapse. Operating without a current warrant where one is required is an offence, and councils audit.
The lease question
Leases commonly allocate responsibility for maintenance and compliance costs between owner and tenant. That allocation is contractual and does not shift the statutory obligation from the owner.
Practical approach: the lease should be explicit about who arranges inspections, who pays, and the tenant’s obligation not to alter specified systems without consent. And the owner should verify rather than assume, because it is the owner who signs.
The seismic overlay
Separate from the warrant but frequently discovered at the same time. Under the Building Act, a building assessed at less than 34 percent of New Building Standard and likely to collapse in a moderate earthquake is earthquake-prone.
Territorial authorities identify potentially earthquake-prone buildings, issue notices with remediation deadlines, and those notices must be displayed on the building.
Commercially, 67 percent NBS matters more than the statutory 34 percent. It has no statutory status, and institutional tenants, insurers and lenders use it — so a building can be entirely legal and still difficult to lease, insure and finance.
What to check before buying
- The current compliance schedule, and whether it matches the systems actually present.
- Warrant history — has one been issued each year?
- The supporting 12A certificates.
- Any council notices, including earthquake-prone building notices and their deadlines.
- Seismic rating, the assessment type and its date.
- Any outstanding building consents that were never closed out with a code compliance certificate.
That last one catches people. Open consents become the owner’s problem at the point of sale, often years later.
MBIE publishes guidance on compliance schedules, building warrants of fitness and the earthquake-prone building system free at building.govt.nz, and your territorial authority publishes local requirements and the register of earthquake-prone buildings.
General information only, not legal or building advice.
