Page 3678 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 27 October 2015
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penalty at five days and two days notice respectively. This short notice period recognised that there were some properties that needed to be vacated very quickly where loose-fill asbestos fibres were detected in living areas. The amendments proposed to enable landlords and tenants of eligible impacted properties to similarly end a tenancy agreement in order to facilitate the property being purchased by the territory. However, the notice period here is proposed to be 28 days in recognition that the same high degree of urgency to vacate is not present for eligible impacted properties.
The bill seeks to amend the Building Act 2004 to create a provision for the territory to demolish an affected property under a demolition order as an alternate mechanism to seeking a building approval where the demolition is relatively straightforward. The provision for a demolition order will streamline the demolition process and remove the requirement for and, importantly, the expense of engaging a private certifier where the Construction Occupations Registrar finds that this level of oversight is simply not required.
Safety will be regulated in the same way as under the other arrangements through procurement requirements and, of course, work health and safety regulation. The Construction Occupations Registrar retains the ability to direct that a building approval be sought if, in the circumstances, the demolition is deemed to be too complex in nature and would require that additional oversight.
The amendments to the bill seek to extend the same provision for demolition orders to the demolition of eligible impacted properties. As a consequence, the Building and Construction Industry Training Levy Act, which requires the payment of a levy to support training in the building and construction industry, must also be amended. Currently the training levy is calculated and payable through the building approval process. In recognition again of the important role of training in improving safety in the industry, the bill contains provisions to confirm when an affected property is demolished under a demolition order the levy will, again, be calculated and paid on the same basis as it would be if it were done through a building approval process. The amendments to the bill propose that the same provisions be extended to the demolition of eligible impacted properties under a demolition order.
Regarding the reissue of the new crown lease, the Planning and Development Regulation 2008 was recently amended to enable the territory to grant a new crown lease to the former owner of an affected property by direct sale where the owner chooses to exercise the first right of refusal to repurchase their former block after remediation. The amendments to the bill propose that the same provisions be made where the former owner of an eligible impacted property purchases their original block through the first right of refusal.
The bill proposes changes to the Land Rent Act to enable land rent to be offered to former owners of affected properties who repurchase their blocks through the first right of refusal and, again, who meet eligibility criteria under the scheme. The bill specifies that land rent leases granted under these circumstances will not be transferable and notes that such leases will only be converted to standard leases at market value. The amendments to the bill propose that the same provisions be
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