Page 4566 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 19 October 2010
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many problems may have been resolved between owners and builders, or left unresolved, and are not reported to the planning authority or the Office of Regulatory Services. Building quality issues are reported against less than two per cent of all completed building works, of which complaints about residential work form only a part.
To gather further information, the government will work with the Owners Corporation Network to undertake a survey of apartment owners. I encourage all owners and bodies corporate to participate in this survey and report any problems, even if these have been rectified. The survey will complement a review of the way information on complaints is collected and used by ACTPLA. There will also be analysis on whether other models, where some degree of government certification is retained, are effective in producing better quality buildings.
Although building certifiers have definite responsibilities for making sure that buildings comply with relevant standards, it needs to be clarified that not all areas under the heading “building quality” are the responsibility of the certifier. Certifiers are not plumbers, gas fitters or electricians. Neither are they site supervisors that oversee daily work on a construction site. Other licensees are responsible for these issues. The additional research will find where failures in the current system may be occurring and where further reform is needed. This work will be completed by ACTPLA, in consultation with industry, by the end of this year.
Having said that, the forum identified a number of areas that are affecting quality. The building quality report details 16 recommendations for the short, medium and long term. These reforms focus mainly on apartment buildings, as forum discussion centred on these issues. But the reforms can be expanded to other types of residential buildings. The primary aim of these reforms is to improve the professionalism and maturity of the entire industry.
The challenge is to bring all practitioners up to the minimum standard whilst acknowledging the demands on the construction industry to deliver an increasing number of buildings in a short time frame. A number of improvements in administering existing legislation and education are also important to increase professionalism, industry skills, regulation and compliance activities. Practices in both industry and government can become sclerotic over time. When I ask why things are done this way I often get the response, “Well, because this is the way we’ve always done it.”
The report acknowledges that ACTPLA can do more on auditing. There are not many building inspectors. The inspection service comes at a significant cost. On-site auditing has mainly focused on responding to complaints rather than duplicating certifiers’ inspections or monitoring individual construction work. ACTPLA has already begun additional auditing of medium and high-rise apartment construction and improving communication with certifiers about policies and standards.
In the short term, the number of mandatory inspection stages in apartment buildings will increase to include a pre-sheet inspection, where major building services will be checked, and an inspection of completed wet areas. Further work on the construction will not be able to be carried out until these inspections are completed.
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