Quality Assurance Act Masterclass

NewArmstrong provided a Masterclass on the Quality Assurance Act for IGG Construction Economics. The target group of this Masterclass were the building economists of IGG Building Economy. NewArmstrong has an internal Quality Assurance Officer and is now preparing for the WKB for a number of customers. The Quality Assurance Act is now applicable to a small portion of construction projects (Consequence Class 1), particularly small-scale residential and industrial buildings, both in a new construction situation. The introduction of the Quality Assurance for Conversion Act has now been postponed until mid-2025.

wkb

Masterclass

Since the target audience here was construction economists, we particularly considered:

the background and time period of development of the law, the effective date by consequence class
what is the essence of the WKB and why is this now dealing with a construction activity?
what changes in the process
What is changing in public and private law? What transitional law applies?
What changes per role in construction collaboration ( client, superintendent, contractor, quality assurance contractor)

Of the first three bullets, the essence is written down below. Would you like the entire explanation? Then email or call for an appointment where we will also take you through the direction of the WKB.

Background WKB

The background to the WKB is the conclusion of the Building Regulations Consultation Platform ( OBP) in 2000:

Building regulations are a difficult domain to access
Building regulations have little resonance with the construction industry
Knowledge of regulations in practice is moderate
This permanently fuels regulatory discussion
The end user has little understanding of building regulations and sees little societal benefit
Local assessor has increasing difficulty in living up to his duty

Based on this, in 2008 the Dekker Commission’s advice set the strategy: ‘public what must, private what can’. This was incorporated into a bill ( in very broad context: 26 individual laws have been reduced to 4 General Orders in Council ( AMvB), of which the Environment Act is one. The Quality Assurance Act is part of the Environment Act. It was passed in 2019 and introduced in 2024.

Key points

The essence of the Quality Assurance Act consists of two main elements:

Tightening liability rules (in all works)
New quality assurance system

The goal is to increase construction quality and strengthen position of construction consumer ( both business and private person).

Consequence classes

The consequence classes under discussion are the classes under which construction projects are divided:

Consequence class 1: limited risk of personal impact: residences and simple commercial buildings
Consequence class 2: risk of personal consequences if building codes are not met: libraries, hospitals, residential buildings up to 70 meters in height
Consequence class 3: risk of significant personal consequences if building codes are not met: subway stations, soccer stadiums and residential buildings taller than 70 meters. This consequence class covers a broad spectrum.

Currently, the WKB is only in effect for New Construction of Consequence Class 1. By mid-2025, it will also be in effect for remodeling, with Sequence Class 2 following only after that.

Process

The most important thing that changes in the process:

Not timing of permit, but notification of completion central
Building quality data needed at time of issue
Not paper quality central, but realized quality: no preventive review
Not the right quality delivered and demonstrated: then do not put into use.

The first next step is planned for 2025: declaring the WKB applicable to “Reconstruction” in Consequence Class 1. In the meantime, NewArmstrong has a number of projects under consequence class 1 New Construction with which we can now gain experience.

The challenge in the retail work field is that during construction the notification of completion must be sent to the quality assurance agency. He must then determine that the permit has been complied with and report this to the competent authority.

With the speed of construction in retail, this can mean that the construction has not yet been completed, while the Building File already needs to be coordinated with the quality assurance agency in order for the commissioning to take place on time.

By creating an integral file from design, start of construction to gathering input from the (sub)contractors and coordinating this early with the Statutory Quality Assurer, NewArmstrong can steer for a quick approval of the file after completion, so that commissioning can take place.