Weathertight OIAs and Ministerial Servicing Guidance
Timing and communication
Communication with Weathertight needs to be regular – no surprises.
Important to keep in mind people’s working arrangements:
o Pete Hackshaw (Acting National Manager) is based in Auckland
o Rachel Singers works Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays
o All draft and final responses need to be reviewed and signed off by Rachel, before going
to Katie Gordon (Weathertight and Building Systems Support Manager) and then Pete.
Please send Mako links, not copies of documents.
Process step
Responsibility
Timeframe
Contact weathertight
Writer
Same day OIA is
([email address]) to advise
received by writer.
OIA has been received and request
information/advice as needed.
Arrange to provide information.
Weathertight (Alby, Erin
Response within 2 days,
Murphy, or admin team
indicating timeframe for
– depends on query).
providing information.
Review information for redactions, etc
Writer
Draft letter
Writer
QA letter
Another Ministerial Services
team member
Draft response provided to
Writer
Needs to be provided to
Weathertight (email Mako link to
Weathertight
at least 7
Rachel)
working days before
due date.
Draft response reviewed by
Weathertight (Erin)
Within 2 days.
Weathertight
Final changes made
Writer
1 day.
Final response provided to
Writer
Needs to be provided to
Weathertight (Rachel), with sign-off
Weathertight at least 4
sheet
working days before
due date.
Sign-off
Weathertight (Alby, Erin, Pete)
Within 3 days.
Writing for Weathertight
It’s important to keep in mind who the requestor is, and write the response accordingly. Are they
a stakeholder? Claimant? Reporter? Have they made a previous request?
Claim numbers are all five digits, and should be referred to (for example) as Claim 01234.
Responses need to be specific and accurate; no ambiguity.
Where the address of the property in question is not provided in the request, we should specify it
in the response.
In the letter, the way we refer to documents being requested and/or released should reflect the
wording used in the documents themselves.
We should aim to be helpful when referencing the information, providing titles and dates where
appropriate.
Publicly available information
Statistics on weathertight claims are available on the Ministry’s website here:
http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/building-construction/weathertight-services/weathertight-
homes-resolution-service-claims-statistics/?searchterm=weathertight%20statistics
They are updated monthly.
Some financial information is available through the annual reports, which are also available online.
BAU vs OIA requests
Requests from Territorial Authorities which cover information we would normally provide to them (such
as whether or not a claim is eligible, or an assessor’s report if the TA is contributing to FAP for the claim)
can usually be dealt with as BAU. The reasoning for this is:
it’s often information we’ve already provided to the Council,
the Council are key stakeholders and therefore we’d like to be as helpful as we reasonably can,
and
the information often only relates to one claim so isn’t onerous or time consuming.
However, if a request such as this lands in your inbox, please confirm with Weathertight that it’s ok to
keep it BAU before proceeding.
Requests which are outside of the norm are generally OIAs. This allows us to follow the appropriate
processes (including seeking legal advice or input from the Communications team where appropriate) and
also means that requests are properly filed and recorded. Examples include:
requests for ‘all documentation related to a claim’, or ‘all correspondence related to a claim’
requests for statistics, or information on more than one claim, such as ‘all the claims for Rotorua
Lakes Council’.
Where there is a bit of a grey area – please ask.
