Certification of building control in the Netherlands

Ensuring compliance with public building regulations is traditionally the task of local authorities in most Western countries. In the twentieth century, most countries harmonized the technical requirements for buildings at the national level. In the Netherlands this was realized by means of the Bouwbesluit (Building Decree) of 1992. An evaluation of the new regulations showed that their uniformity was undermined by a considerable variation in the way that local authorities checked the building plans for the building permits, and in the manner in which site inspections are conducted. Many other problems concerning the capacity and the quality of local authority building control having been identified, it was then asked how some of the building control tasks could be passed to private parties, subject to effective certification by the duly appointed bodies. Recently, the OTB Research Institute carried out some project on behalf of the Dutch Government to explore the possibilities and consequences. In the first project the possibilities and effects of the certification of public building control were explored. The second project was the initiation of a guideline for the certification of design assessments against the requirements of the Dutch Building Decree. In the final project, the results of an experiment with this guideline were evaluated. In the experiment 20 companies were certified on the basis of the requirements of this guideline. The process of the introduction of certified private parties building control stretches out over many years yet. It is still proceeding and there is still enthusiasm among the participating companies. The changing atmosphere of the political agenda though, might threaten the development.