IQPs and what they can sign
What an Independently Qualified Person is, why there is no national register, and why a good IQP will sometimes tell you they cannot sign.
Checked against the legislation
The definition
An independently qualified person is defined in section 7 of the Building Act 2004 as a person who is accepted by a territorial authority as qualified to carry out or supervise the inspection, maintenance and reporting procedures for a specified system, and to certify that those procedures have been fully complied with — and whose acceptance has not been withdrawn.
Two things follow from that definition, and both surprise people.
There is no national register
Acceptance is granted by a territorial authority, not by a national body. There is no national IQP licence and no single national register. A person accepted in one district holds no automatic standing in another.
It is also granted per specified system. Being accepted for SS2 emergency warning systems says nothing about being accepted for SS1 sprinklers or SS8 lifts. Each is its own acceptance.
For a building owner this mostly matters in one situation: a portfolio spread across districts. Three buildings in three districts is three sets of council relationships, three compliance schedules and three anniversary dates, and whoever is certifying them needs standing in each place for each system involved.
“Independent” means independent of the building
The person certifying must have no financial interest in the building. An owner who happens to be personally qualified still cannot certify their own building. The point of the certificate is that somebody outside the ownership has put their name to it.
Why an IQP can refuse to sign
Section 108A of the Building Act says an IQP must not state — in a warrant or in any other document — that the inspection, maintenance and reporting procedures for a specified system have been complied with over the previous 12 months if those procedures have not been fully complied with.
Breaching that is an offence, carrying a maximum fine of $50,000 for an individual and $150,000 for a body corporate.
There are defences: a reasonable mistake, reasonable reliance on information supplied by another person, or having taken reasonable precautions and exercised due diligence.
The practical consequence is worth stating plainly. If procedures were missed during the year, an IQP cannot make that right with a signature. Not because they are being difficult, and not because the relationship has broken down — because the statute puts a personal criminal liability on that signature.
An IQP who signs anyway has not done you a favour. They have created a false record on your building, which is a considerably worse position than a late warrant.
If procedures were missed
That is a specific situation with a defined path through it, and it is more common than the industry lets on — a contractor changes, a quarter gets skipped, nobody notices until the anniversary.
Start here if you have failed an inspection or cannot get a Form 12A.
Common questions
Is there a national IQP licence?
No. Acceptance is granted by individual territorial authorities, per specified system. Someone accepted for fire alarms in one district is not automatically accepted for sprinklers, or for anything at all in a neighbouring district.
What does "independent" mean?
Independent of the building. The person certifying must not have a financial interest in it — which is why an owner cannot certify their own building even if they are personally qualified to do the work.
Our IQP says they can't sign. What now?
They are almost certainly right, and section 108A is why. There is a defined path through it, and it starts with establishing exactly which procedures were missed.