Costs for LBP to defend High Court Appeal (involving a BPB complaint and district court appeal decision)

Jeff Bell won an appeal against a LBP complaint decision. This was with generous assistance of a previous 'givealttle' page. MBIE and the Building Practitioners Board have lodged an appeal in the high court seeking to overturn the appeal.

After the Bell appeal hearing and before the judges decision was made MBIE provided the Kumar vs Ali decision to the court. This Kumar decision used arguments that had not featured in the Bell appeal and were not argued by his advisors. The Bell decision was good for the other arguments that were run (e/g/recognition of schedule 1 work as not RBW)but the Kumar precedent was used by the judge as his main reason to overturn the BPB decision'.

MBIE are now seeking to overturn the Kumar vs Ali precedent despite not appealing it when it first came out in the Kumar appeal decision. That Kumar decision stated that it was the owners responsibility to advise the council when a LBP left the site and institute a new LBP who would provide a ROW. This is contrary to many previous BPB decisions where LBP's who had left in disputes were still found liable for the failure to provide their ROW (often because they were distracted by the dispute and anyway no one asked for it(including council who often prompt the LBP.

Long story short is that we are seeking contribution to legal costs ($5000) to allow a proper defence and ensure the gains made by Kummar and the Bell appeals are not lost.