The Residential Building (Miscellaneous Consumer Protection Amendments) Bill 2022, has now passed the Parliament following some minor amendments made in the Legislative Council.
Attorney-General and Minister for Workplace Safety and Consumer Affairs, Elise Archer said this delivers on our commitment to further strengthen protections for consumers and property owners within Tasmania’s building regulatory framework
“Building and construction is a key driver of our economy, employing over 20,000 Tasmanians, and these changes get the balance right by ensuring strong protections for consumers without impeding important building activity,” the Minister said.
“The Bill focuses on three key themes – enhancing the dispute resolution framework; better addressing defective building work; and improving the accountability of statutory office holders.
“Specifically the Bill will:
- transfer jurisdiction for resolving residential building disputes to the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal;
- establish Defective Work Orders which provide a new mechanism for defect rectification after the completion of building work;
- introduce two new mandatory notification (inspection) stages, in line with the Building Confidence Report recommendations, to reduce the rate of defective work; and
- consolidate the responsibilities of local councils under the Building Act 2016 to increase their accountability in carrying out important functions.”
Work will now get underway to prepare for implementation of these reforms as soon as possible while we also continue to progress other important reforms such as the reintroduction of home warranty insurance, tabled in Parliament this week, to provide additional protections for Tasmanians.
