Restricted building work

What is restricted building work (RBW)?

Restricted building work is work that is critical to make a home structurally sound and weathertight.

A licensed building practitioner must carry out or supervise restricted building work.

Restricted building work includes:

• design
• carpentry
• foundations
• roofing
• brick and block laying
• external plastering.

More information
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment - Restricted building work (RBW)

Licensed building practitioners (LBPs)

LBPs are people who have shown through assessment that they meet the standard of skill and competence required in particular areas of building practice. They are assessed before getting a licence, and need to keep their knowledge up to date to keep their licence.

LBP classes include:

• designers
• carpenters
• roofers
• bricklayers and blocklayers
• external plasterers
• foundation layers.

Registered architects, chartered professional engineers and licensed plumbers are also deemed to be LBPs.

LBPs can only complete work for which they are licensed. It is the owner's responsibility to check that the tradespeople doing and/or supervising the work are licensed building practitioners and that they have the relevant licence before you start work.

A Record of Building Work memorandum will need to be provided by your LBP when the work has been completed.

Memorandum from Licensed Building Practitioner - Record of Work

Visit the public online LBP register to find licensed building professionals.
Licensing Building Practitioners register

Owner-builder exemption

An exemption is available to owner-builders allowing them to carry out restricted building work on their own home.You are an owner-builder if you:

• live in or are going to live in the home you are renovating or building (includes holiday homes and baches)
• carry out the restricted building work on your own home yourself, or with help from unpaid friends and family members
• have not carried out restricted building work to any other home within the previous three years under the owner-builder exemption.

More information
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment - Obligations and responsibilities of owner-builders and their building project
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment: DIY, but build it right

Owner-builders who carry out restricted building work must complete a statutory declaration and provide it to us with your building consent application or before work begins. The completed statutory declaration will be kept on the property file so that future purchasers of the property are aware whether the work was carried out by the owner or a licensed building professional.

Owner-builder statutory declaration form (PDF, 523KB)