Apartment purchasers are to have greater confidence to buy property under new laws to revolutionise the way professional engineers, designers and builders work on multi-unit, multi-storey residential buildings (class 2 buildings).
Minister for Better Regulation and Innovation, Kevin Anderson said the new Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 responded to the February 2018 Building Confidence Report, an independent inquiry which found non-compliant design and poor design documentation were the single greatest driver of defects in class 2 buildings.
“In the past, consumers have been wary about buying new or off-the-plan apartments because of the risk of poor building work and design standards – but that ends today,” Mr Anderson said.
“For every new residential apartment building being constructed, the designers, engineers and builders involved in that work will have to be registered and comply with robust new requirements,” he said.
“Under the changes the days of poor-quality design are over – designs for a high-rise apartment will have to be to a minimum standard and lodged with the regulator before construction begins.”
Mr Anderson said targeted audits of the designs would be undertaken so issues could be identified and addressed before building works commenced.
The Minister said that under the Act, designers must declare their designs complied with the Building Code of Australia and other relevant standards; builders must declare their building work was constructed in accordance with compliant designs; and declared designs must be lodged on the NSW Planning Portal before construction could begin.
NSW Building Commissioner, David Chandler said the Act put the responsibility back onto the designers and builders to ensure their work was up to scratch and took a proactive regulatory approach to protecting the interests of apartment purchasers.
