As Victoria’s building and plumbing regulator, the Victorian Building Authority (VBA) has a role in ensuring practitioners understand how to do things correctly, and in discouraging risky, harmful or illegal behaviour in the building and plumbing industries.
A strong theme emerged from the work the VBA did this year: we worked together with industry to have a positive impact on their practice. Through our collaborative research and forums, the VBA listened to the sentiment of industry and focused on the things that would make us a more effective and more trusted industry regulator.
Underpinning this is the VBA’s compliance and enforcement work, which focuses on reducing risk to the Victorian community by prioritising our efforts towards activities that pose a greater threat to their health and safety or which risk economic loss.
The Proactive Inspection Program (PIP) and Compliance and Enforcement reports are two ways we showcase how the VBA is safeguarding Victoria’s future.
During the last financial year, we inspected 13,157 building permits or 10.97 per cent of all permits issued during the financial year, exceeding the Minister’s Statement of Expectations 10 per cent target.
In 2021-22, the VBA issued 5,476 notifications to practitioners requiring them to respond to a compliance risk identified through PIP. Non-compliant issues of a severity that are likely to result in adverse effects on safety or amenity, financial loss for future occupants or loss of structural integrity if left untreated were prevalent in 1.7 per cent of inspections, a rate consistent with previous years.
To ensure practitioners benefit from the significant work undertaken as part of PIP, the VBA publishes quarterly reports on PIPs findings, including identifying the most common problems found on site. You can access these reports.
Our compliance and enforcement work resulted in more timely and efficient outcomes for complainants, with a 51 per cent reduction in plumbing complaints escalated to investigation thanks to the VBA’s fast-track resolution process. Similarly, building complaints escalated for investigation reduced by 48 per cent, due to a greater emphasis on early education and intervention.
The VBA continued to refer serious matters and repeated misconduct for investigation.
When undertaking practitioner discipline, monetary penalties ranged from $2,000 to $4,000 for missed inspections to $57,500 for serious misconduct.
Cancellation and disqualification are reserved for the most serious misconduct matters, where the VBA forms the view that the protective purpose of the building regulation scheme requires the removal of the practitioner from practice – fair, firm, fast.
The January-June Compliance and Enforcement report (PDF, 1069.12 KB) is available.
After yet another busy and productive year, we want to wish everyone a safe, health and prosperous year ahead.
Sue Eddy, Andrew Cialini,
VBA Chief Executive Officer VBA State Building Surveyor
In this edition…
Building permit data for 2021-22
Building permit data for the 2021-22 financial year showed Victoria’s building industry continued to flourish, with 119,970 building permits approved.
Licensing and registration activity
The 2021/22 financial year demonstrated growth in the number of building and plumbing registrations and licenses across both natural persons and companies.
Current market factors in the building industry – including a shortage of labour, supply chain constraints and the availability and cost of materials – are affecting many home-building projects.
Proactive Inspections Program (PIP) report (PDF, 16152.68 KB)
The Proactive Inspections Program (PIP) report involves checking building and plumbing works under construction throughout Victoria. You can now read the 2021-22 summary report.
Holding practitioners to account
A builder was penalised for offences at multiple sites and given $15,000 in monetary penalties for a variety of breaches.
Compliance & Enforcement report (PDF, 1069.12 KB)
This twice-yearly report focuses on compliance and enforcement activities achieved by the VBA in the second half of 2021-22.
NCC 2022 Editorial Corrections completed
In late October, the ABCB advised users of the National Construction Code (NCC) that they needed to correct some typographical errors and hyperlinks within NCC 2022 national provisions and State and Territory variations. That work is now completed and you’ll find NCC 2022 here. The ABCB have also published a list of all the corrections for those who downloaded a PDF of the NCC volumes back in early October.
Following on from the VBA NCC Roadshow presentations, the VBA is developing further education for industry on the key changes.
Energy Safety Victoria (ESV) battery warning
Energy Safe Victoria (ESV) has warned Victorians to always ensure they use manufacturer-approved batteries and chargers when powering electrical appliances.
The warning follows a series of fires, reported to ESV, caused by the use of incompatible batteries and chargers to power electrical tools and gardening appliances.
