If you are reading this because your IQP has just told you they cannot issue a Form 12A, the situation is recoverable and there is a defined process for it. It is also more serious than most owners initially realise, and the instinct people have — find a different IQP — is the one that turns a manageable problem into a genuinely bad one.
First, the bad news
The Building Act requires that all inspection, maintenance and reporting procedures in the compliance schedule have been completed for the previous 12 months in order for a BWoF to be issued.
MBIE's guidance on this is unusually blunt:
"The Building Act does not provide any flexibility or exemptions to this requirement."
One missed monthly emergency lighting check is enough. It does not matter that the system works. It does not matter that eleven of the twelve were done. It does not matter that the person who missed it was in hospital.
Where procedures have been missed, at the time the next BWoF is due, a valid BWoF cannot be supplied or displayed.
Why your IQP cannot help you
Owners sometimes read the refusal as unhelpfulness, or go looking for a more accommodating IQP. Understand what you are asking for.
An IQP who states that compliance schedule procedures have been complied with when they have not commits an offence. The fines are up to $50,000 for an individual and up to $150,000 for a body corporate.
You are asking someone to take a five-figure personal risk to save you an awkward letter to the council. A competent IQP will decline, and the ones who would not are not people whose certification is worth anything.
The refusal is the system working. Take it as information rather than obstruction.
The B-RaD and S-RaD process
MBIE has published a route through this, and using it is far better than the alternatives.
When a BWoF is due but cannot be supplied because procedures were missed, the building owner issues a BWoF Report and Declaration (B-RaD). It sits in place of the BWoF and it states plainly:
- That it has been issued in lieu of a BWoF
- That the compliance schedule requirements were not complied with, and that a BWoF cannot be supplied or displayed
- Which specified systems had procedures missed in the previous 12 months
- Which specified systems did not have procedures missed
- The performance status of each specified system
You supply the B-RaD to the territorial authority and publicly display a copy in the building, on the anniversary of the issue of the compliance schedule — the same timing as the BWoF would have been.
With it you attach:
- All Form 12As for the systems where nothing was missed. These are still valid and still issued.
- A Specified System Report and Declaration (S-RaD) from an IQP for each system where procedures were missed.
MBIE publishes template forms for both. Your IQP will normally have them.
What the S-RaD must contain
The S-RaD is the substantive document and it is written by the IQP, not by you. For each affected system it states:
- The specified system concerned
- That a Form 12A cannot be issued because one or more procedures were missed
- Which procedures were missed and why — worded specifically, for example that one IQP inspection due in April was missed due to IQP illness with no available replacement
- What has been put in place so it does not happen again
- Whether the system is or is not currently performing to its performance standard
- Whether the missed procedures have materially affected the system's ability to perform
- A description of the status of the system, if it is not performing
- What measures are in place, or will be, to restore performance
Read that list again with an eye to what it is doing. It separates two questions that owners tend to blur together: was the paperwork complete and is the building safe. You can be in breach on the first while being sound on the second, and the S-RaD is how you say so on the record.
That distinction is worth a great deal — to the council, to an insurer, and to you.
What this does and does not fix
It does not:
- Give you a BWoF
- Change your obligations under the Building Act
- Remove the offence provisions under sections 108 or 164
- Make the missed procedure retrospectively done
MBIE states this directly: supplying and displaying a B-RaD does not change any responsibilities an owner has under the Building Act.
It does:
- Put the true position in front of the council rather than concealing it
- Demonstrate that you know what was missed and what you have done about it
- Establish, on the record, whether the systems are actually performing
- Give you a document to show an insurer that is far better than nothing
MBIE also notes that territorial authorities administer and enforce these provisions locally, and that typically a pragmatic approach will be taken. That pragmatism is much more likely to be extended to an owner who came forward with a B-RaD than to one who displayed a BWoF they were not entitled to.
Displaying a false or misleading BWoF is itself an offence, carrying a maximum fine of $20,000 and an instant fine of up to $1,000. Do not be tempted. It converts a records failure into a deliberate act.
The insurance question
This is the part that usually concentrates minds, and it deserves its own paragraph.
Not having a current BWoF may compromise your insurance cover. MBIE encourages owners to review their policies to understand the impact and to contact their provider if needed — and goes further, suggesting that where cover is affected, owners could work with their insurer to amend policy wording to reflect the importance of systems currently performing, as opposed to procedures being carried out.
That is a useful hint. An S-RaD that states clearly that the system is currently performing to its performance standard is exactly the evidence that conversation needs.
Call your broker. Do it before the renewal, not after a claim.
Making sure it does not happen again
The S-RaD asks what measures you have put in place. Have a real answer, because the same question will be asked next year.
What works:
- A named person and a named backup for every owner-carried-out procedure. Not a department.
- A calendar built from the compliance schedule itself, building by building, rather than from a house rule. Councils word schedules differently.
- Quarterly logbook reviews. A gap found in month three is fixable in the sense that you can stop the bleeding; a gap found in month twelve is a B-RaD.
- IQP visits booked a year ahead, with the dates in the same calendar.
- A handover checklist for when the person leaves. This is the single most common root cause and almost nobody has one.
- Someone senior sees the compliance calendar monthly. Not to do the work — to notice when it stops happening.
If you have inherited a building and are not sure where you stand, the sequence is in Specified Systems under the Building Act 2004. Start with the compliance schedule from the council, not from the vendor.
We baseline buildings in exactly this situation — establishing what the schedule requires, what has actually been done, what is performing and what is not, and giving your IQP something they can work with. It is not a comfortable conversation but it is a much better one than next year's.
Related: why buildings fail emergency lighting on their BWoF and what an IQP is.