The summer break is almost here and for most of the construction industry it means the beach, the BBQ and the beers. However, for clients it is often a time of confusion and frustration as to what happens and when.
For clients with consents in at council the dreaded 20 working days time limit (or seemingly impossible target as it's become) the definition of ‘working day’ excludes the days during the period from 21th December to 10th January inclusive. This means the last working day of this year is Wednesday 21st December 2022 and the first working day of 2018 is Tuesday 10th January 2023.
What else happens at this time?
Not much! Contractors, reps, etc all go on holiday and with the industry so busy right now most employers are wanting their employees to have as much break as possible so their holidays during the year are more manageable. In Wellington most start back after anniversary weekend and feature a couple of short weeks with Waitangi Day soon after as a soft start to the year.
What can you do?
It's frustrating when the best weather is around to not have tradesmen on-site. Unfortunately this is just the nature of the beast in Wellington. We've witnessed many attempt to work through to come unstuck when they required an inspection or material delivery they find themselves unable to work efficiently and wind up having a few days off anyway.
That's not to say this should happen without a discussion first. All clients and their contractors should be talking through the holiday period and how that affects the construction timelines and completion dates for their project specifically. Also it allows some scope to pre-order materials for the contractors working through to keep them busy.
So what are our office hours over the Christmas period? Our offices close at 5pm on Wednesday 21st December 2022 and reopen at 8.30am on Monday 16th January 2023. That said, if anything urgent comes up you’re always welcome to email us.
Happy Christmas everyone!
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