The NSW Building Commissioner has welcomed the passing of two Bills through Parliament last week providing the legal framework needed to support the State’s six-pillar Building Reform package.
The Commissioner, David Chandler (pictured) said passage of the Design and Building Practitioners Bill 2019 and the Residential Apartment Buildings Bill 2020 provides the core of the Government’s plan to reform the industry.
“Poor quality buildings and shoddy workmanship simply won’t fly anymore,” Mr Chandler said.
“We’ve got a robust plan in place to put the consumer first and improve transparency and accountability across the sector.”
He said the new powers would apply to both the construction of buildings going forward and also existing buildings built in the past 10 years.
“These powers, coupled with the statutory duty of care that passed the Parliament, will give homeowners with existing defects in their building the ability to recover the cost of rectification from those who are responsible,” Mr Chandler said.
Minister for Better Regulation, Kevin Anderson said the much-needed reforms armed the Building Commissioner with a suite of powers to ensure buildings were constructed to a high standard, with robust offences and heavy fines for those who did the wrong thing.
“The Building Commissioner is now equipped with the power to prevent occupation certificates or strata plan registrations before defective buildings can enter the market,” Mr Anderson said.
“This means we now have a clear pathway to lift the standards of construction and prevent consumers from purchasing a property riddled with problems down the track.”
He said that together, the two Bills laid the foundations for the biggest shake-up of the building sector the State had ever seen.
The powers outlined in the Residential Apartment Buildings Bill 2020 are to come into effect on 1 September.
