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MBIE suspends Aust-based building products certifier
Phil Pennington, Reporter
A leading certifier of building products, including aluminium cladding panels, has been suspended.
Queensland-based CertMark International had failed to meet the requirements of New Zealand's leading Codemark certification scheme, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said.
CertMark has until October to fix the problems for the suspension to be lifted.
Its existing product certificates remain valid but it cannot do any other Codemark work.
Local councils should check the Codemark register before issuing any new building consents involving certificates issued by CertMark, the ministry said.
The company said it was surprised at the suspension as it has had regular audits that covered the half dozen "minor" procedural problems it has now been faulted on.
"That said, we are confident that we can close out the non-conformities in a timely manner," chief executive John Thorpe said in a statement.
The suspension continues a host of problems for the MBIE-owned Codemark scheme.
A review found serious problems with it.
Then CertMark was last year caught up in the mass cancellation of Codemark approvals of aluminium composite panels similar to those used on the Grenfell Tower in London, because their fire resistance claims were not backed up.
Then in February this year, Wellington-based Beal Certification Services had its Codemark accreditation revoked entirely.
This comes at the same time as the ministry is attempting to improve the rules around quality control of building products.
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