New Zealand's leading specialist compliance consultants
Holmes Farsight was founded in 2011 by Wellington-based building compliance expert Rob Tierney as part of the Holmes Group of specialist consulting businesses.
We are now New Zealand’s largest independent team of specialist compliance consultants with in-depth knowledge of the New Zealand Building Code and environmental health related legislation. Our team combines the best from council and commercial business, giving us the perspective from both parties of the compliance relationship.
Our team take pride in our pragmatic approach to client projects and by drawing on our years of experience and broad project range, we give our clients confidence and assurance that their project, big or small, will succeed.
Holmes Farsight is a New Zealand Accredited Inspection Body under the International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ): ISO/IEC 17020:2012 accredited. Learn more.
Our team brings positivity and personality to the process – you’ll enjoy working with trustworthy people who keep it simple and speak in plain language
Rob Tierney
CEO/Principal
With over 30 years of industry experience, including over eight years with Wellington City Council, Rob provides clients with a unique perspective to regulatory challenges. Rob is the key interface between building projects and councils. His pragmatic approach to his clients’ projects saves them time, money and hassle achieving building consent approvals. He has also assisted multiple local councils in NZ. Working with Central Government on the development of Risk Based Consenting, and in 2011 was the regulatory stream leader for the Wellington City Council for the Rugby World Cup. Rob is a former member of the Board, and Technical Chair, of the Building Officials Institute of New Zealand.
Rasha Al Mansori
Technical Building Specialist
Rasha attended Victoria University of Wellington obtaining a Bachelor of Building Science. She has gained 3 years of building industry knowledge including the completion of the 2 year graduate programme with the Auckland City Council as Specialist Re-clad Advisor and later, Graduate Building Surveyor. She gained expert knowledge in weather tightness and remedial construction projects. Her time at Auckland City council resulted in competency in Building Inspections, consent processing, enforcement/compliance, control policy. She later transferred her knowledge and became a successful member of Alexander and Co LTD as a Building Science Engineer overseeing high scale projects. Her enthusiasm and extensive knowledge makes her a proactive member of Holmes Farsight paving the way to excellence.
Claire Lawrence
Project Assistant and Quality Leader
Claire is an exceptional Quality and Business Development Leader bringing over 10 years’ experience of key account management, administration and compliance. Claire leads the delivery and maintenance of policy, procedures and systems that promote and achieves the quality assurance goals of Holmes Farsight. Being part of the senior leadership team Claire helps with operational and business development strategies.
Ben Healy
Regional Manager (South Island)
Ben brings over 20 years of industry experience in local government and architecture. He specialises in providing Holmes Farsight’s clients with cost-effective regulatory solutions and efficiently acts as the key interface between our clients’ building projects and the Council. Ben has vast knowledge of the Local Government Act, Resource Management Act and the Building Act and codes. Prior to joining our team, Ben spent over a decade working for Local Government as the Technical Leader for Building and Environmental Services. Ben successfully managed a large number of direct and indirect reports, and trained staff to build their competencies in line with the Building Act and codes.
Jon Astwood
Regional Manager ( North Island)
Jon is an exceptional Technical Leader bringing over 27 years of in-depth knowledge of the construction industry, including nine years in local government and 16 years of hands on experience as a professional builder. Jon has been involved in the success of almost every large-scale project completed in Wellington from 2003 and 2013. These include Chews Lane Apartments, Wellington Regional Hospital, Wellington International Airport Terminal upgrade, Supreme Court, Telecom Central, SOHO Apartments, and ASB Wellington Sports Centre, amongst others.
Richard Lorgelly
Technical Building Specialist
Richard brings over 27 years of construction industry experience and knowledge to Holmes Farsight. 20 of those years being on the tools as a qualified Carpenter. Richard also has years of experience working at local council, carrying out a wide range of functions such as processing building consents, inspections and influencing the Quality Assurance team on training. His expertise allowed him to successfully facilitate the Local Council staff in obtaining their qualifications, ensuring the requirements for Reg 18 were met and the BCA Accreditation was retained.
Lee Yasar
Technical Building Specialist
Lee brings over 17 years of building industry experience and knowledge to Holmes Farsight. Lee’s areas of technical expertise lie in plumbing and drainage, inspections, CPUs, CCCs and COAs. Prior to joining our team, Lee spend over 14 years gaining experience and knowledge by working in the NZ Construction industry as a plumber, drain layer and gas fitter. Lee also spent over three years working for Local Government, carrying out the functions of a Building Officer out in the field carrying out inspections of residential and commercial buildings under construction.
Mike Cox
Senior Technical Building Specialist
Mike is a Senior Regulatory Consultant who has gained over 30 years of experience in the construction industry. His expertise allows him to assist others understanding of the legislation to promote efficient risk informed decision making. Prior to Holmes Farsight, Mike, began as a builder to site manager, project manager and designer to building officer and later to central government advisor. He later joined the Wellington City Council as a team leader consenting and Com 3 Building Officer. After gaining diverse range of knowledge he moved his expertise to MBIE as a senior advisor, providing Nationwide advice to BCA’s and fire engineers on fire safety and building act matters. He further facilitated workshops and presentations, authored design guides for specialist buildings and restructured the acceptable solutions for fire. His experience is valued at Holmes Farsight as one of the base Regulatory Consultants.
Sue Bai
Office Manager/EA to Rob Tierney
Sue has been with Holmes Farsight for over four years and brings a wealth of efficiency and organisational knowledge to our team. She had extensive knowledge regarding the regulatory requirement for building consents and compliance through her various roles working at Wellington City Council. She provided high standard administrative and secretarial services to four Building Group Managers during her two years as a Personal Assistant. In her current role as executive administrative support to the CEO, she also manages the office and maintains an overview of all staff and their current projects, upcoming deliverables and deadlines. Sue’s management of the team and the Wellington office ensures we’re an effective and efficient team and always putting our best forward
Saba Al Mansori
Technical Building Specialist
Saba graduated from Victoria University of Wellington with a Bachelor of Architectural Studies in 2016. She continued her studies completing part one of a Master of Architecture. Whilst studying, Saba gained valuable building industry knowledge working as a Draughting Technician and specialising in BIM and CAD modelling. She gained experience with Auckland Council as a Reclad Draughting Technician working on designing weather-tightness details with a specialist advisor. She later joined Blue Pencil Architecture as a Graduate Architect working on a diverse range of projects and producing architectural sets for small scale non-restricted building works and design and delivery methodology.
Experience Holmes Farsight
We service all of New Zealand and have offices in three locations including Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch.
Holmes Group
As a business, Holmes Farsight deliver a thorough and robust service, supported by the wider Holmes Group infrastructure, expertise and experience. We sit alongside and complement the existing Holmes Group’s businesses.