RSNL1990 CHAPTER B-8 - BUILDING STANDARDS ACT

RSNL1990 CHAPTER B-8 BUILDING STANDARDS ACT Amended: 2017 c10 s5; 2023 cT-6.2 s310 CHAPTER B-8 AN ACT RESPECTING THE PROVISION OF BUILDING STANDARDS Analysis 1. Short title 1.1 Definitions 2. Application of Act 3. Regulations 4. Penalty Short title 1. This Act may be cited as the Building Standards Act. RSN1970 c27 s1 Back to Top Definition 1.1 In this Act, "minister" means the minister appointed under the Executive Council Act to administer this Act. 2017 c10 s5 Back to Top Application of Act 2. This Act applies to all of the province except (a) the City of St. John's; (b) areas held or administered by the St. John's Municipal Council; (c) a town incorporated or continued under the Towns and Local Service Districts Act or a local service district incorporated or continued under that Act; and (d) an area constituted a city or municipality by special statute. RSN1970 c27 s2; 1979 c33 Sch C; 2017 c10 s5 ; 2023 cT-6.2 s310 Back to Top Regulations 3. (1) The Lieutenant-Governor in Council may make regulations to regulate and control the physical development and improvement in a systematic and orderly manner and to prevent deterioration of the area to which the regulations apply (a) to control the use of land with respect to location, design and construction of buildings and to prohibit the erection or occupation of a building unless provision is made for sanitary facilities, water supply, drainage and other works and facilities; (b) to prohibit or restrict an occupation or use of land or a building where considered advisable; (c) to require the owner of land to remove from the land or destroy, a building, structure, object or material situated on the land or to do an act or thing considered necessary in the interests of health or safety or for the protection of rivers, brooks, streams, lakes or ponds, and to provide for the removal or destruction or the doing of the act or thing upon the failure of the owner to do so; (d) prescribing building lines, fence lines and the area of yards, courts and other open spaces to be maintained and the maximum density of population permissible within a district; (e) empowering the minister to prohibit or refuse to permit the use of land or the erection or repair of a building, structure or thing on, in, over or under land or water, in a locality, even though the use, erection or repair would in all other respects be in accordance with regulations made under this section when, in the opinion of the minister (i) the establishment, maintenance, or use of the land, building, structure or thing would be dangerous to the health or safety of persons living in the locality, (ii) the use or intended use of the land, building, structure or thing is or would be undesirable having regard to the use of existing buildings, the probable use of buildings that may be erected, or the present or probable use of lands, in the locality, or (iii) the height, ground area, bulk, or type of the building, structure or thing that it is proposed to erect or repair is or would be undesirable having regard to existing buildings or buildings that will probably be erected, or the present or probable use of lands, in the locality, or when the Lieutenant-Governor in Council directs that it is in his or her opinion undesirable to permit the intended use, erection or repair of the land, building, structure or thing. (2) In addition to or instead of the exercise of the power to make regulations under subsection (1), the Lieutenant-Governor in Council may by order adopt and constitute as regulations by reference (a) the National Building Code of Canada or an official abridgement; (b) the Code or abridgement with the exception of specified provisions; (c) specified provisions of the Code or abridgement; and (d) an amendment to the Code or abridgement made with or without modification, and a certificate of the minister that a document is a copy of the National Building Code of Canada or an official abridgement or an extract from or an amendment to either of them shall without further proof be, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, evidence of the Code or abridgement or extract from or amendment to either of them. (3) For the purposes of this Act, a copy of the Code and of the abridgement or shorter form when available signed and certified by the minister shall be kept on record in the minister's department and copies of supplements or amendments made may likewise be signed, certified and kept on record. (4) For the purposes of regulations made under this Act the record copies so signed, certified and kept shall be considered to be the Code or shorter form as the case may be, irrespective of supplements or amendments since made but not yet signed, certified and recorded by the minister. (5) An alleged infringement of the regulations shall be governed by the Code or shorter form, whichever may be applicable, supplements and amendments as certified and on record at the time of the infringement. (6) In regulations made under this section the issuing of orders within the scope of this section may be authorized requiring within the time that may be prescribed in the order an owner, agent, lessee or occupier of premises to comply with provisions of the order. (7) A regulation made under this section may be made to apply generally or may be restricted in application to a specified area and different regulations may be made in respect of different areas. RSN1970 c27 s3; 1989 c30 Sch B; 2017 c10 s5 Back to Top Penalty 4. (1) A person who (a) contravenes; (b) fails to comply with the requirements or obligations imposed by; or (c) interferes with or obstructs a person in the discharge of duties under, this Act, a regulation, or an order made under this Act or a regulation, or who tears down, removes or damages a regulation, order, or notice made under or relating to this Act or a regulation and posted or published is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $200 and in default of payment to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 6 months. (2) The conviction of a person for failing to comply with a requirement or obligation referred to in subsection (1) shall not operate as a bar to further prosecution under this Act for the continued failure of the person to comply. (3) In addition to the penalty prescribed under subsection (1), the Lieutenant-Governor in Council may order a person convicted of an offence to remove or restore to its former state the land or a building, structure or thing erected or placed on land and, if that person does not carry out that order within the time prescribed, the Lieutenant-Governor may designate a person to carry out the order and the cost of carrying out the order shall be borne by and may be recovered as a civil debt from the person convicted. RSN1970 c27 s6