Page 4565 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 19 October 2010
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After its first meeting in late July, the forum agreed to establish four working groups. These groups examined in detail reform in the areas of owners’ rights, industry skills and competence, effective supervision and insurance for building defects. The discussions at the initial forum and at the working group meetings provided the basis for the recommendations contained in the report Building quality in the ACT, which I tabled today.
It is important to recognise the contribution from the members of the forum. I thank them for sharing their knowledge, their experience and their time. As we can all appreciate, issues that affect your home or your livelihood can be sensitive. I particularly commend the working groups for their positive and cooperative approach to resolving problems.
The report also includes the preliminary results from work ACTPLA have been undertaking on analysis of complaint statistics, setting their long-term program for legislative review for the construction sector and responding to increases in building work in the territory.
There are a wide range of problems that can be included under the heading “building quality”. Not all of these fall into the definition of building work or in traditional building regulation. Many types of building problems, such as structural issues, fire safety and noise attenuation, relate to compliance with the Building Code of Australia. Other building issues relate more generally to the Building Act, which covers construction processes, and general requirements for services such as plumbing, electrical and gas fitting are covered by the electrical safety, gas safety and water and sewerage acts. Consumer issues, such as contractual problems and non-building work, and some trade work completed outside of construction processes are dealt with under fair trading and consumer laws.
Whilst this might sound complex, it should be remembered that in other jurisdictions there are many separate regulators for each process. There are only two regulators covering all of these areas in the ACT—the Planning and Land Authority for construction regulation and the Office of Regulatory Services for fair trading.
Despite this, one of the things the building quality forum identified is a need to provide clearer information to owners and consumers about their rights and obligations. The forum identified issues such as the role of building certifiers, builders and other practitioners; regulatory functions and complaints processes; and the coverage of mandatory building insurance for low-rise buildings. This information will be included on the ACTPLA website and in new publications for owners.
To assist industry with its obligations, ACTPLA will work with industry to develop a series of practice notes and default design solutions for major quality issues, such as balconies over habitable areas and the use of waterproofing products. This will give greater guidance on acceptable practices.
Throughout the process it has been recognised that the scale of building quality issues in the industry is difficult to quantify based on government statistics. This is because
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