Page 2157 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 2 August 2016
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New provisions for contracting will allow regulations to address some of the common things that may cause confusion or disputes over residential building work, such as building terms and standard conditions.
A new section in the Building Act listing the functions of a building certifier helps people to better understand a certifier’s role in the regulatory system. Further amendments define the powers of government building inspectors and what a building inspector may do during an inspection. These two changes highlight the different roles of building certifiers and building inspectors in administering and enforcing the Building Act.
Amendments to provisions for staged inspections make the obligations of both certifiers and builders clearer when a prescribed stage is reached and update the technical terminology used to describe a “damp course”. A new regulation-making power to make provisions for staged inspections allows a regulation to prescribe what must be inspected and how. This supports government reforms to put in place minimum standards and improve consistency in how buildings are inspected and certified.
Expanding the existing power to make a code of practice for building work to include building certification work and providing for guidelines for building documentation to be made under the act also support these reforms. In addition, new examples and automatic suspension grounds better explain how nominees are appointed, the eligibility requirements for a nominee and for corporations and partnerships when they do not have a nominee.
Further amendments align the requirements for electrical, plumbing and gas fitting certification to demonstrate that a building is fit for occupation with those required under the electricity safety, the gas safety and the water and sewerage acts. This means if a final inspection by a government inspector is required under those acts, the registrar can rely on a past inspection result rather than the licensee’s own certificate of compliance or completion. This is standard practice at present because an inspection may reveal that a system does not initially comply with basic safety requirements and must be rectified before it is safe to use.
Revising the provisions related to making codes of practice and declarations of mandatory qualifications and inserting standard inspection and search warrant powers also improves consistency across construction acts.
There will be times when things do not go right. If a rectification order is needed, new examples help people to understand how the 10-year limit for rectification orders is intended to apply, particularly where it is not clear when work was completed. The examples are not intended to be exhaustive but include situations in which the registrar’s ability to issue a rectification order is regularly questioned.
The bill also includes powers for the ACAT to consider conditioning, suspending or cancelling related licences if it is appropriate to do so, and increases the amount ACAT can impose on a licensee in relation to an occupational discipline order as a
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