Licensed Building Practitioner: what restricted work covers

"Licensed Building Practitioner" is the most searched building term in New Zealand and the one most often described in the wrong direction. People look up what an LBP is allowed to do. The Act works the other way: it defines a category of work, and then says only a licensed person may do it.

Get the category right and everything else follows.

Section 84, in one sentence

"All restricted building work must be carried out or supervised by a licensed building practitioner who is licensed to carry out or supervise the work."

Two conditions in the tail. Licensed, and licensed for that kind of work. A licence in one class does not authorise work in another.

This is also the one credential on a New Zealand site that an Act actually demands. The card most often mistaken for a second one — the Site Safe passport in the same wallet — is a membership organisation's product and a contractual condition of entry, not a statutory requirement: what the Site Safety Card is, and what the Health and Safety at Work Act asks for instead.

Section 85 puts the offence on the person doing the work:

"(1) A person who is not a licensed building practitioner commits an offence if he or she carries out restricted building work while not supervised by a licensed building practitioner who is licensed to carry out or supervise the carrying out of restricted building work of that kind. (2) A person who is a licensed building practitioner commits an offence if he or she — (a) carries out restricted building work and is not licensed to carry out restricted building work of that kind; or (b) supervises restricted building work and is not licensed to carry out or supervise the carrying out of restricted building work of that kind."

Fine on conviction: up to $50,000 (s 85(4)). Section 85(3) preserves the owner-builder exemption.

Section 86 then puts an offence on whoever engages the person, where they know the person is not licensed or not licensed for that kind of work. Fines on conviction: up to $50,000 for an individual and up to $150,000 for a body corporate (s 86(2)). Section 86(1B) excludes "any unpaid friend or family member of an owner-builder".

That pairing matters for a main contractor. Subcontracting restricted building work to someone you know is not licensed is your offence, at a higher maximum than theirs.

What counts as restricted building work

The Act does not define it. Section 7 and s 402(1)(n) let the Governor-General define it by Order in Council, and the Building (Definition of Restricted Building Work) Order 2011 does.

Clause 5 covers building work. It applies to work that is:

"(a) the construction or alteration of — (i) the primary structure of a house or a small-to-medium apartment building; or (ii) the external moisture-management system of a house or a small-to-medium apartment building; and (b) of a kind described in subclause (3); and (c) of a kind for which a licensing class to carry out or supervise the work has been designated by Order in Council under section 285 of the Act."

And subclause (3) is the list:

"(a) bricklaying or blocklaying work: (b) carpentry work: (c) external plastering work: (d) foundations work: (e) roofing work."

Clause 6 covers design work: "the preparation of any drawing, specification, or other document, according to which — (a) the primary structure of a house or a small-to-medium apartment building is proposed to be constructed or altered; or (b) any external moisture-management system attached to or forming part of a house or a small-to-medium apartment building is proposed to be constructed or altered."

Clause 7 adds design work relating to the fire-safety systems of small-to-medium apartment buildings.

Clause 4 excludes work relating to a building consent applied for before the Order commenced, and work carried out by a registered manufacturer of modular components in the course of designing or manufacturing one.

Three things this definition does and does not do

It is about elements, not about consents. The Licensed Building Practitioners scheme's own guidance is explicit that restricted building work is "not limited to work that requires a building consent". The categories it names are the primary structure — "all the structural elements of the building that contribute to resisting vertical and horizontal loads" — external moisture management, "the building elements and systems which prevent the ingress of external moisture", and fire safety system design.

It is residential only. House, or small-to-medium apartment building. Commercial work is outside the definition, whatever else applies to it.

It is not the whole job. Painting, joinery, landscaping, and most services work are not on the clause 5(3) list. That does not make them unregulated — plumbers, gasfitters, drainlayers and electricians have their own licensing regimes under their own Acts — it means they are not restricted building work.

Note also that clause 5(2)(a)(ii) was amended on 15 January 2026 in connection with non-consented small stand-alone dwellings, so if your work involves one, read the current text of the Order rather than an older summary of it.

Section 87: the notification is the owner's job

This surprises builders regularly, because in practice the builder does it.

"(1) Before restricted building work commences under a building consent, the owner must give the building consent authority written notice of the name of every licensed building practitioner who — (a) is engaged to carry out, or supervise, the restricted building work under the building consent; and (b) was not stated in the application for the building consent under section 45(1)(e)."

Section 87(2) then requires a further written notice if an LBP "ceases to be engaged" or "another licensed building practitioner is engaged", and s 87(3) requires that notice to say which of those applies and to "be given as soon as practicable".

The statutory duty sits with the owner. The practical consequence sits with you: if the notice is not given, the council's records do not show you on the job, which becomes awkward at the point where you file a record of work for it.

On larger residential jobs this notification duty sits alongside a heavier set of owner-facing obligations — see Residential building contracts: the $30,000 line, where the disclosure form itself asks for a licensed building practitioner number.

Section 88: the record of work

"(1) Each licensed building practitioner who carries out (other than as an owner-builder) or supervises restricted building work under a building consent must, on completion of the restricted building work, provide the persons specified in subsection (2) with a record of work, in the prescribed form, stating what restricted building work the licensed building practitioner carried out or supervised. (2) The persons are — (a) the owner; and (b) the territorial authority for the district in which the restricted building work is situated."

Four points that decide whether this goes smoothly.

It is per practitioner. Every LBP who carried out or supervised restricted building work on the job files their own record, describing their own work. On a house with a carpentry LBP, a roofing LBP and a foundations LBP, there are three records.

It is due on completion of the restricted building work, not on practical completion of the building and not when the council asks for it at code compliance certificate time. In practice a missing record of work is one of the more common reasons a CCC application stalls.

"Stating what restricted building work" you did means describing the scope. A record that says "carpentry" says less than the section asks for.

It does not create liability. Section 88(4):

"A record of work given under subsection (1) does not, of itself, — (a) create any liability in relation to any matter to which the record of work relates; or (b) give rise to any civil liability to the owner that would not otherwise exist if the licensed building practitioner were not required to provide the record of work."

But s 88(5) adds: "Subsection (4) does not limit section 362I(1)(c)" — the implied warranty that the building work will be carried out in accordance with, and will comply with, all laws and legal requirements including the Act and the regulations. The record does not add liability; it also does not subtract the warranties that were there anyway.

What to keep, and why it is the same thing you already need

The record of work asks you to state what restricted building work you carried out or supervised. Reconstructing that six months after the fact, across three jobs, from memory and a phone camera roll, is the reason records of work are late.

The information that answers it is ordinary site information:

• which days your people were on that job, and on what — the supervision question is answered by attendance and involvement, not by a signature at the end;
• photographs of what was covered up, dated, on the project rather than in a chat thread;
• the consent number and the scope you were engaged for, kept with the project.

That is also the material that answers a s 362I warranty claim years later, and the implied warranties you cannot contract out of run a good deal longer than the memory of who framed which wall.

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Checked on 29 August 2026 against the Building Act 2004 and the Building (Definition of Restricted Building Work) Order 2011 on the New Zealand Legislation website, and against the Licensed Building Practitioners guidance on restricted building work. Clause 5 of the Order was read in the version as at 7 September 2022; the Order's contents page records a version as at 15 January 2026 following the Building and Construction (Small Stand-alone Dwellings) Amendment Act 2025, so read the current text if your work involves a non-consented small stand-alone dwelling. This describes the legislation and is not legal advice.

What Zirko does: it keeps documents and photos on the project, records time per person per day, and holds quotes and invoices against the same project — the raw material of a record of work. What Zirko does not do: it does not produce a record of work in the prescribed form, does not notify a territorial authority, and does not track licence classes or their currency.