NSW Design and Building Practitioners ACT and Regulation
NSW Fair Trading has distributed widely to practitioners in the building industry an email announcing the introduction of one of its legislative building reforms – Design and Building Practitioners Act commences 1 July 2021.
AGDA has been maintaining a watching brief on this Act (and other building reforms) through its participation in HIA Technical Committee meetings.
It is understood that garage door practitioner would be most unlikely to be directly involved with the regulations as to design and construction registration and documentation specified within The Design and Building Practitioner Act 2020 & Design and Building Practitioner Regulation 2021.
However where builders, in the chain of authority, and having for some years now, already required subcontractors or tradespersons to sign off on their work on apartments being compliant to product and installation standards and that their subcontractors and/or workers have been paid, this will continue and the various forms involved may have revised wording.
These initial building reforms are summarised as follows.
The Design and Building Practitioner Act 2020 & Design and Building Practitioner Regulation 2021 takes effect on 1 July 2021 and key parts are:
- The Act and Regulations will apply to all Class 2 buildings. These are typically multi-unit, multi-storey residential buildings (apartments) where people live above and below each other.
- The regulation expects compliant design and engineering to take place by qualified individuals; and for qualified builders to then build to those designs (and seek re-approval for any required variations).
- The Act and Regulation will operate through the requirement that all design will be signed off by the head designer (who will need to be registered under the Act & Regulation) and declared as compliant to the Building Code of Australia (National Construction code) and other relevant standards before building work can start, and declared designs will need to be lodged on the NSW Planning Portal. Builders must then construct and the work be signed off by the head builder (who will need to be registered under the Act & Regulation) that construction has been according to those designs.
It would be most unlikely that a garage door practitioner would be involved as a head designer of an apartment to the stage of submission of plan lodgement to NSW Planning Portal.
In terms of installation in the construction phase it is also most unlikely that a garage door practitioner would be involved as a head builder required to make a building compliance declaration.
The following FAQ points clarify further that a garage door practitioner would be most unlikely to be directly involved with the regulations as to design and construction registration and documentation specified within The Design and Building Practitioner Act 2020 & Design and Building Practitioner Regulation 2021.
Registration as Building Practitioner – General
Authorised to make Building Compliance Declarations for building work and prepare and provide required documents by a Building Practitioner who must be licenced as a builder and able to demonstrate qualifications and 5 years of experience.
Who doesn’t need to register?
Only the person who will be declaring or lodging documents needs to register.
For example, one designer might sign off on designs from a team of designers. Only the person signing off and declaring the design needs to register. Not every designer needs to register.
Similarly, only the head Building Practitioner or principal contractor needs to register to make a building compliance declaration, not every subcontractor and tradesperson.
QUICK LINKS AND RESOURCES
The Design and Building Practitioners (DBP) Act and Regulations impose multiple new obligations on design practitioners. To ensure our members are across the requirements and the implications these entail, we strongly encourage all members in NSW to familiarise themselves with the information and resources curated here.
CHANGES START TO TAKE EFFECT FROM 1 JULY 2021