DECEMBER 2010
Page 1
Inside this issue:
1
Sofitel Queenstown
1
Current Projects
2
WHK Invercargill
2
BNZ Tower
Refurbishment
3
Construction Law
Myths
4
Construction Law
Myths cont
5-9
Social Events
THE FULL MEASURE
Upgrade of Sofitel Lobby and Reception Area
Where is the reception? This has been a common cry from visitors to the Sofitel in
Queenstown ever since it opened five years ago. The reception at that time was
hidden in the back of the building. When the body corporate changed in late 2009,
plans were soon put into place to re-locate the reception to the front of the building
including incorporating several of the vacant retail spaces. Martin Hughes Design
included a French theme into the design of the reception, café and lobby areas. The
„new‟ antique 90 year old revolving doors, which were sourced from an English
office building added a sophisticated new entry to the hotel. The revolving door
arrived in three crates without any instruction manuals leaving a few people
scratching their heads trying to work out how to put it together.
Naylor Love were the building contractors. They provided outstanding site
management to complete the building contract whilst at the same time maintaining
the ongoing operation of the hotel reception in it‟s transformation from the old to
the new.
Current Projects
Wellington Office
Auckland Office
Queenstown Office
Heretaunga College
Porirua College
Amesbury Drive School
Queen Margaret College
Palmerston North Pak N Save
Broadway New World
No 1 Featherston Street
Summerset Aotea
Wellington Zoo
Luxford Villas
Rathkeale College
Ronald McDonald House
Newlands New World
Cranleigh Boarding House
Jury house
Papatoetoe Multisport
Site 14, Tank farm
HNZC Ernie Pinches Street
Rotorua Police Station
Liu House
Alpha Labs
Sudima Auckland Airport Hotel
Northern Swim School, Silverdale
Westhaven Marina pier upgrades
Dio School carpark & sports turf
Te Wao Nui at Auckland Zoo
Manukau Police Station Stage 3
Manurewa Police Station
Auckland Eye Clinic
Dilworth School Rural Campus
HNZC Tuarangi Apts
Barley Station
Wanaka Medical Centre
WHK Invercargill
Lukers Cottage Arrowtown
MC Estates
Threepwood Subdivision
Page 2
WHK Building Invercargill
Tim Shadbolt is encouraging the modernization of Invercargill. For instance the new head offices of
accountants WHK is a 3200m2 high tech building designed by Parker Warburton. The new building now
enables the bringing together of staff currently located in five different office buildings across the city. Maltbys
were involved as the Quantity Surveyor for the contractors responsible for the building shell and siteworks. A
separate fitout contract was undertaken direct with WHK.
BNZ Tower Refurbishment 125 Queen Street
The refurbishment of the podium levels of the former BNZ
tower at 125 Queen St has recently been completed. Maltbys
was involved with the estimation, procurement and
administration of this project.
The works included a new 3 level facade and canopy works
on the Queen St and Swanson Street frontages. The façade
has been modernised with new polished stonework, a glazed
curtainwall and brass/stainless steel mesh screens forming an
open-air atrium at the main entrance. This plethora of new
materials is flanked by an historic façade which has been
restored and is now illuminated by an array of Color Kinetics
LED uplights. The interior spaces on the basement, ground
and first floor levels have been cleared out ready for new
tenancies and the lobbies on the same levels completely
refurbished. These lobbies now feature granite tiling and
Cedar TG&V ceilings.
An interesting feature of the project was the requirement to
replace the escalators with new units and reverse the
alignment of one of the escalators to create a „scissor‟
configuration.
The formation of a new escalator pit in the basement and
numerous structural and services changes were required to
accommodate this change. The construction budget for the
project was $5.6m although the final account will fall well
within this figure.
Page 3
Construction Law Myths - reasonable skill and care is understood by everyone
This is an extract from the RICS December 2010 journal written by Tom Marke, Senior Associate with law
firm Nabarro.
In carrying out services, professional‟s are required by English law to act with „reasonable skill and care‟.
This is a term frequently used in the construction industry but one that is often expressed in numerous ways
which can lead to misunderstanding over what it actually means.
The actual level of skill and care expected of any consultant will depend on his role, the terms of his
engagement and the nature of the project in question. If a consultant fails to exercise the requisite level of
care, he runs the risk of being held to have acted negligently.
How is it Assessed?
The general rule is that a person‟s conduct must conform to the standard expected of the notional
„reasonable man‟.
A professional holds himself out as having a specialist skill, so the standard of care required of him is
elevated to that of the reasonably competent professional in that field, having regard to the standards
normally adopted in his profession.
The law does acknowledge human error, and the mere fact a mistake has been made will not necessarily
mean a consultant has been negligent, i.e the standard required is not one of perfection. For example, the
case of Bolam v Friern Hospital Management Committee (1957) established that a professional will not
necessarily be negligent if he can show that he has conformed to a practice accepted as proper by some
responsible members of his profession—even if other members would have taken a different view.
However, inexperience in that profession is no defence. For example, a junior surveyor who negligently
carries out a survey of a property will not be judged by the standard of a junior surveyor but by that of a
reasonably competent surveyor.
„Fitness for purpose ‘obligations
A fitness for purpose obligation only applies if expressly included in a consultant‟s written appointment and
imposes a higher standard of care than the duty to act with reasonable skill and care. Consultants should
try to avoid fitness for purpose obligations in their appointments as these are often difficult to guarantee at
the outset of a project and may even jeopardise the consultant‟s professional indemnity insurance cover.
Page 4
Construction law myths continued
Express contractual provisions
Section 13 of the Supply of Goods and services Act 1982 (SGSA 1982) imposes a duty on people to carry
out services using reasonable skill and care.
However, this obligation is typically included by way of an express clause within a consultant‟s written
appointment in a bid to increase the level of care the consultant must use in carrying out the services in
question. There is no universally accepted wording for a reasonable skill and care clause and variations
on the wording are common. For example, the RICS Standard Form of Consultant‟s Appointment requires
consultants to exercise the „Requisite Standard‟ in performing their services which is defined as:
“…. the standard of reasonable skill and care to be expected of an appropriately qualified professional
consultant of the discipline specified .. holding itself out as having the competence and resources to
perform the Services and who is experienced in providing services in connection with works of a similar
size, scope, nature, complexity and value as the Project.”
What does ‘diligence’ mean?
Section 14 of the SGSA 1982 operates to impose an additional obligation on professionals to carry out
their services within a reasonable time.
Written appointments often express this requirement as an obligation for consultants to carry out their
services diligently or with expedition. This imparts the duty to carry out the services in a timely and efficient
manner.
Absolute obligations
It should be remembered that a written appointment may also impose absolute obligations on consultants
that are not subject to reasonable skill and care. For example, the following may all be expressed as
absolute obligations:

maintaining professional indemnity insurance

providing collateral warranties on request

granting a copyright licence
Therefore to reduce the risk of negligence claims, although perfection is not the standard of care owed,
consultants do have to carry out their services to the standard that would ordinarily be expected of a
reasonably competent professional in their field, having regard to the nature of the project in question.
Page 5
SOCIAL EVENTS
Page 6
Auckland
Christmas Function
This year the Auckland office competed in “The Amazing Race” around Auckland City. We divided into two
teams of 4: Team A “Minus One” Arthur, Anne, Cameron & Phil (AB missing, duty called) and Team B “All
Present” Gary, Huw, Beth & Phil. Kendall & John had put together 22 challenges for us. Some were as
simple as collecting a bank slip from TSB; others a bit harder like finding the name of the company at 61
Hobson Street where the street numbers were all mixed up. Thank you both so much for all your effort. The
rules were that we had two hours and $100.00 per team to complete as many tasks as possible. We had so
much fun and learnt a lot about our city as well as having plenty of exercise. Team A used their money wisely
to get a taxi to the furthest point while Team B spent it having a drink at Soul Bar, one of the challenge
locations. Both teams attempted all challenges but it was Team B that won overall with two more correctly
answered challenges than Team A—it must have been the Red Bull at Soul.
After cooling down we met up with our partners and went for an excellent dinner to Vivace.
Challenge 21: Take a picture of the Viaduct Basin
Swinger?
Which one is correct?
Page 7
Auckland
Pool Tournament
Maltbys retained the Maltbys Pool Cup for the second year
running, with a thrilling victory in the play offs.
After securing the Minor Premiership from Greenstone and
NZ Strong in the play off semi‟s Maltbys and NZ Strong won
through to the final. In the best of seven final, the scores were level
at 2-2 before Gary finished off the 5th frame to lead 3-2 and then
broke off in the 6th frame and proceeded to clear the table,
culminating in a remarkable double with the black ball.
Needless to say NZ Strong were stunned, and Maltbys took the
Cup with a 4-2 victory.
Beer / Sweet & Savory Tasting
Beer tasting had a revised challenge this year with Cameron obtaining all the cheap student beers which the
rest of us had to identify. The beers were OK but most would agree that our taste buds have matured from
our student days.
Our appetites were once again longing for the sweet / savory competition and what a lot of variety we had
with lemon pie, fortune cookies, quiche and of course chocolate brownies. They were all winners.
Page 8
Wellington—Christmas Dinner
Maltbys Wellington celebrated
another year with Christmas
dinner at the „Capitol‟
restaurant. The meal was
delicious and the
accompanying wines were
excellent. The silly glasses
worn by the boys added to the
atmosphere!! Later in the
evening a few hardy souls
ventured into Courtenay Place
to continue the festive season.
Wellington - Golf Challenge
Maltbys v Mainzeal mini Golf
Challenge was held in November.
Mainzeal set up their offices for the
challenge which everybody enjoyed. It
was a close completion with Maltbys
winning, thanks to Dave Jenkins making
the best score.
John Oscilowski
After being with our Wellington office for nearly 7 years, we said farewell to John
Oscilowski in September. John has left to join Beca Structural Engineers in
Wellington. His presence will be missed and we wish him and of course Rachel all
the best in their new endeavour's.
Page 9
Queenstown
Christmas Party
Maltbys Ltd
Level 2 Princes
Court
2 Princes Street
PO Box 2176
Auckland 1140
T 09 303 4394
F 09 307 1034
admin@maltbys.co.nz
www.maltbys.co.nz
Once again Maltbys joined forces for Christmas Celebrations with 3 other local
businesses; 2 Arc Studios, Lewis Bradford, and Phil Blakely. Everybody had a
wonderful evening. We started with a cruise on the lake aboard „The Princess Launch‟
for drinks and whitebait patties. Afterwards we headed to the private cellar room at the
Sofitel for a sumptuous feast of food, wine and great company.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable night.
Maltbys Ltd
Maltbys House
Level 2, 9 Tory St
PO Box 1034
Wellington 6011
T 04 499 1468
F 04 499 4648
admin@maltbys.co.nz
www.maltbys.co.nz
Jeff atop the podium at Alpe d’Huez
Maltbys Ltd
Level 2
The Station
7-9 Duke Street
PO Box 975
Queenstown 9300
T 03 442 5965
F 03 442 5931
admin@maltbys.co.nz
During his cycle tour through the French Alps from
Geneva to Nice in September, Jeff was one of two
of the nine cyclist group that undertook this
famous mountain climb with its 21 hairpin bends.
Col du Telegraphe and Col du Galibier, both hors
categorie (beyond categorization) climbs, as is the
Alpe, are ascended earlier in the day. Alpe
d”Huez is a very with 3 very tough climbs and is
recognized as being the equivalent of a much
longer stage.
www.maltbys.co.nz
Stage 21of the 2011 Tour de France will be
almost exactly the same route as the group rode in
September.
EDITOR
Anne Fletcher
afletcher@maltbys.co.nz