The Department of Building and Housing faced a grilling on Wednesday in front of the Royal Commission into the Canterbury Earthquakes over the standards required of buildings.
The Royal Commission has been hearing evidence about the performance of older brick and stone buildings in the quakes.
The official guidelines from 2005 on earthquake resistance require the older buildings to be above 33% of the modern building standard but encourage councils to push for 67% as best practice.
The department's deputy head of sector policy, Suzanne Townsend, faced questions from the lawyer for families of quake victims over why her department had allowed the building sector to lag behind best practice for more than five years.
Ms Townsend replied nobody had asked for a change in the policy so it was therefore not a priority.
Building owner speaks of 'nightmare'
Earlier on Wednesday, building owner Joe Arts told the commission Christchurch City Council had been a nightmare to deal with when he was trying to upgrade his 100-year-old building.
He said the process was delayed because the council constantly added new requirements, including wheelchair access, and a shower.
