Fake goods cheap but hazardous
In glass and window circles, there’s more than one story of Auckland apartment buildings where imported windows had to be removed because they didn’t meet code.
In electrical circles, homeowners and developers are importing noncompliant cabling or light fittings and wanting sparkies to install them.
The dangers are very real. Noncompliant glass is a hazard, particularly if it’s meant to be safety glass or if it’s installed at height. Dodgy electrical goods risk fire and electrocution.
Window Association New Zealand chief executive Brett Francis says local glass manufacturers use a mark that shows they’ve met the strict New Zealand Building Code glazing rules.
But there have been cases where even the inspectors are fooled. Glass with fraudulent New Zealand stamps has been found. Tracing the product overseas and trying to get consumer compensation is often hopeless.
Master Electricians chief executive Bernie McLaughlin says there has been a surge of non-compliant fittings being imported in the past four years.
The trend increased after advances in LED lighting made it cheaper to buy overseas, he says.
‘‘We’ve now got people such as property developers and homeowners who want to tap into other parts of the value chain upstream or downstream in some cases, and they’re importing these products themselves.’’
Electrical work can’t be checked by a building inspector so it is certified by the installer. Sparkies often come under pressure if they were supplied with bad products, McLaughlin says.
‘‘Somebody’s just spent a lot of money to get these things into the country and they’re not compliant . . . but there’s financial pressure on an electrician to install dodgy product or they may not get ongoing work from that developer.
‘‘The biggest issue for electrical workers is that once they’ve signed that work off with their certificate of compliance, they become liable for that product.’’
Like plumbers, McLaughlin says he’s also heard of unskilled labourers doing electrical work and a qualified plumber signing it off, ‘‘which is incredibly risky for your licence and livelihood’’.
‘‘Anecdotally, that’s what I heard was happening in Christchurch . . . That’s a timebomb waiting to happen.’’
While there are no easy fixes, he thinks better supervision ratios for trainees would help, and says there is nothing to stop people taking a sample of the fitting they want to selected laboratories to check if they’re safe.
However, there have been cases of samples being superior to the order that arrives.
Tighter border controls would be difficult to implement, he says.
In the glass industry, Francis says calls for tighter controls aren’t patch protectionism.
‘‘What we are trying to do is ensure people are conforming with the same standards that we do. There is glass that’s being imported that absolutely meets our standards. It’s not that all imported glass is bad. That would be a simple story to tell.
‘‘But unfortunately there’s a bottom end here where imported glass is not meeting our standards and it’s hard to tell. All you can do is rely on how well you trust the source.’’
Industry players say they’re worried that as prefabrication takes off, bathrooms, kitchens and even whole houses will be imported with inferior products built in. They want to know who would test them.