The first wave of reform which is designed to improve building quality and safety in Victoria has been introduced into Parliament and has passed the lower house.

The Building Legislation Amendment Bill 2023 was passed by the Legislative Assembly on March 23^rd.

It will now go before the Legislative Council.

The bill is set form the first stage of reforms as part of the Victorian Government’s response to the landmark Building Confidence Report  that was prepared for the Building Ministers Forum (now called the Building Ministers Meeting) by Professor Peter Shergold and lawyer Bronwyn Weir in 2018.

It aims to address several areas of concern with the state’s current building regulations. These were identified in the Stage One report from the state’s Expert Panel on Building Reform.

Specifically, the Bill will amend several laws including the Building Act 1993, the Architects Act 1991 and several other Acts.

Its effect will be to:

• Upgrade the role of the existing State Building Surveyor to become a statutory role with statutory responsibilities (see below);
• Establish a Building Monitor to advocate for consumer interests in the building regulation regime;
• Expand the categories of building practitioner that are required to be registered (see below);
• Require developers to provide a building manual to owners and owners corporations;
• Require building surveyors to provide a document that outlines and explains (to consumers) their role and responsibilities as building surveyors;
• Amend arrangements regarding the distribution of the state’s cladding rectification levy to enable greater flexibility in determining how funds are to be used to best support owners whose buildings are affected by flammable cladding;
• Amend information sharing arrangements to strengthen information sharing between regulatory authorities; and
• Make several amendments to the Architects Act to strengthen and improve the governance arrangements of the Architects Registration Board of Victoria.

A simplified outline of the changes can be seen in the second reading speech which accompanies the legislation.

The legislation represents the first piece of major building reform that has been introduced in Victoria since the publication of the aforementioned Building Confidence report.

The reforms follow the release of the Stage One report from the state’s aforementioned Expert Panel on Building Reform (refer links above).

That report was the first in a three-stage process of review and reform. Its focus revolved around practitioner registration, consumer representation, regulatory oversight and building approvals.

Additional recommendations regarding further areas of reform are expected in two further papers – both of which are expected to be published this year (refer above link for details).

Referring to aforementioned areas, the Stage One report found a litany of gaps in current regulation.

In particular, it found that:

• The building regulatory system suffers from inadequate data collection and access to and sharing of information as well as poor quality documentation across the building lifecycle;
• The current registration and licensing scheme does not provide sufficient safeguards and controls to ensure that practitioners have the necessary technical skills, knowledge and competence to undertake various types of construction work.
• The system is failing consumers, with information to exercise their rights being difficult to access and understand, a lack of coherent focus on consumer outcomes and exacerbation of power imbalances through a lack of individual, case-based consumer advocacy.
• Regulatory oversight suffers from a lack of continuity and clarity surrounding roles and responsibilities across the building lifecycle and a fragmented approach to oversight of design practitioners.
• The building approval process suffers from a lack of clear and reasonably apportioned accountability for building projects and outcomes, an absence of tailoring building approval processes for building complexity, potential conflicts of interest in private building surveyor roles and an absence of clear processes for regulating changes to approved designs.

In response, the panel made 16 recommendations for change.

In her second reading speech accompanying the new legislation, Victorian Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny outlined some of the key elements of the reforms.

First, the reforms aim to strengthen and formalise the role of the State Building Surveyor (SBS).

Previously, the SBS had been established by the government as an executive staff member of the Victoria Building Authority (VBA). Their role has been to provide compliance advice, technical guidance and interpretation of relevant building standards.

Under the new amendments, the SBS will now have a statutory role which is enshrined in legislation and which has statutory functions and objectives.

The person will have the power to issue binding determinations relating to technical interpretation of building and plumbing standards and requirements. Industry practitioners will be required to ensure that any work which they carry out complies with these determinations.

To help protect consumers, meanwhile, the bill will establish a Building Monitor, who will represent consumers and advocate for consumer interests at a systematic level.

Third, the bill will expand the system of building practitioner registration to address existing gaps.

Specifically, the legislation will establish four new types of building practitioner and will prescribe the authorised work and registration requirements for these practitioners.

The four categories will include building designers, project managers, building consultants and site supervisors. The ‘building consultant’ category may well support follow on regulation to extend registration requirements in areas such as pre-purchase due diligence inspection, maintenance of essential safety measures, disability access and energy efficiency.

Finally, the new law will require developers to provide owners and owners corporations with a building manual to help them understand and undertake future maintenance requirements.

The building manual will form a single repository of all relevant information relating to a building’s design, construction and ongoing maintenance.

Once the legislation is passed, the government intends that operational information relating to the manuals will be set out in amendments to the Building Regulations 2018. This will include the building classes (types of building) for which manuals will be required, the digital format of the manual and the information that the manual will need to contain.

The new building manual requirements will help to overcome a gap in current legislation where there is no clear requirement for developers to provide important building information to initial building owners and subsequent purchasers.

It will assist building owners and owners corporations as well as building practitioners in conducting ongoing maintenance, repair and upkeep of the building.

A full outline of these and other reforms contained in the legislation can be seen in the link to the minister’s speech referred to above.

Kilkenny said the reforms will help to improve the integrity of building regulation throughout Victoria.

“The Victorian Government is committed to delivering a building system that provides safe, compliant and durable housing and buildings,” she said.

“This requires a workforce of skilled and experienced practitioners and a strong and viable system of regulation to enforce compliance.

“This Bill makes a series of legislative amendments that will implement reforms to reshape the regulatory landscape in Victoria, with a key focus on consumer protection, which the Government has placed at the centre of the process, heralding a new era for the integrity of building regulation in Victoria.”

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