By Greg Allan, tradesman and creator of Data First Coaching
Why do so many demolition contractors only find out about a duty after something has already gone wrong?
Most demolition contractors only find out about a health and safety duty after something has already gone wrong, because the duties are treated as background knowledge rather than something checked against the actual job. A demolition business often assumes the last site's approach still applies, when WorkSafe's expectations, the asbestos check and the council permit all depend on what is actually in front of the crew this time.
A strip-out on an older property can turn up hazardous material nobody tested for, a neighbour can call the council about dust or noise mid demolition, and a notifiable event on site needs the right response straight away, not a memory of what happened on a job two years ago. The duties sit with the business, not with good intentions, and New Zealand's law does not care whether the owner meant to check.
What health and safety duties does the owner of a demolition business have in New Zealand?
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, a demolition contractor is a PCBU, a person conducting a business or undertaking, and carries the primary duty of care for everyone affected by the work, so far as is reasonably practicable. That covers the crew on site, subbies, the excavator operator, and anyone walking past the truck and the bin on the footpath.
According to WorkSafe's guidance on excavation safety, those duties include providing a work environment and safe plant, structures and machinery without risks to health and safety, running safe systems of work for demolition, waste handling and recycling, and giving workers the training, instruction and supervision they need, whether they are swinging the excavator, doing a soft strip, or working near a structural element that is about to come down. If the business has more than one person on the books, this extends to consulting the crew on the risks that affect them, not just telling them the plan.
What are a demolition contractor's duties around asbestos?
Before any demolition or refurbishment starts, a demolition contractor must have a competent person inspect the building, including places that are hard to access such as wall cavities, and identify any asbestos likely to be disturbed by the work. According to WorkSafe's guidance on managing asbestos, asbestos must be assumed present if it cannot reasonably be ruled out.
If the job involves licensed removal work, the interpretive guidelines on the Asbestos Regulations put a duty on the PCBU who commissions the work to check the asbestos removalist holds the right licence for the class of work, and an asbestos removal control plan has to be prepared and kept. In an emergency, where a structure containing asbestos material has to come down straight away, WorkSafe must be told before demolition starts, not after, under the same managing asbestos guidance.
Does a demolition job need a building consent, and what about the neighbours and the council?
Whether a demolition job needs a building consent depends on the building and how much of it is coming down. According to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's guidance on demolition of a detached building, a full demolition of a detached building up to three storeys does not need a building consent, but a partial demolition generally does.
Heritage or character buildings are their own conversation, and that guidance is clear that no demolition should start on one without checking with the local council first. None of this replaces the PCBU duties above: a job that is exempt from a building consent still has to be run safely, with the same duties around site safety, dust, salvage and tipping, and anyone sharing the workplace, such as a neighbour's fence line or a shared driveway.
This is general information, not legal, tax or employment advice. Check your own situation with the body named here or a qualified adviser.
How can a demolition contractor keep on top of these duties without it turning into another full-time paperwork job?
You can meet these duties without turning the office into a full-time compliance job if the information comes from your own site and job data instead of memory. AI agents, software that works the way you do, with your prices, your wording and your rules, can hold the asbestos check, the licence copy, the permit status and the removal control plan against each job before the crew is booked, not after.
A data first way of running the business means the duties sit against the actual job, not a template filled in once a year. An AI agent can flag a job where the asbestos check has not been done yet, or where a licence for a subbie has expired, before the excavator turns up on site. That is less time spent on paperwork after hours, and more certainty that the crew, the neighbour, and anyone walking past the truck are covered the way the law expects, so far as reasonably practicable. Greg coaches demolition contractors online, starting from their own data, so wherever the business sits in New Zealand does not change how the coaching works.
Where can you check the current rules?
- Interpretive guidelines: Asbestos Regulations 2016 covers licensing of asbestos removal work and the duty to hold an asbestos removal control plan.
- Excavation safety sets out the general PCBU duties for safe plant, systems of work and worker engagement.
- Managing asbestos in your building or workplace covers pre-demolition inspection and emergency demolition notification.
- Demolition of a detached building covers when a building consent is and is not needed.
- Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 is the Act itself, including the PCBU duties that apply to demolition work.
- A guide to New Zealand's key work health and safety law covers the officer due diligence duty that sits with whoever runs the business.
How does Data First Coaching approach this?
Data First Coaching starts from what is actually sitting in a demolition contractor's own job records: which sites have an asbestos check logged, which licences are current, which permits are still open with the council, before it asks what the owner thinks their safety system looks like. Greg Allan built this from running his own trade business, and the Trade Business Intelligence reads that data alongside ten years of coaching trade businesses, so the gap between what should be happening on site and what is actually happening shows up early, not after an inspector or a neighbour finds it first. The how, the systems that hold this for each business, is worked through inside the Academy, with members who are open minded, innovative and willing to share, because the Trade Business Intelligence is powered by every member.
