1. Threshold criteria

The Master Builders’ Association of Victoria is an industrial organisation of employers in the building and construction industries. Membership is restricted to the following:

• natural persons, who are self-employed; or
• partnerships and companies that employ other people in the industry
  
  

Members that are not natural persons must nominate a director or partner to represent them in the exercise of the rights and obligations of membership. In those membership categories, where only practitioners registered under the Building Act 1993 are lawfully permitted to carry out building work, compliance with such registration requirements is also a threshold condition of eligibility for full membership.

2. Minimum qualifications and experience

(a) Housing contractors

Housing (head) contractors must be registered under the Building Act 1993 in one of the following categories

• Domestic Builder Unlimited (DB-U); or and hold the requisite current warranty insurance policies – or the corresponding certificates of eligibility. In addition, they must also satisfy one of the following options:

• Hold a degree, diploma or associate diploma of building; and have had at least 3 years of practical experience; or
• Hold a relevant Trade Certificate (e.g. Carpentry) and have had at least 3 years of practical experience; or
• Have had at least 10 years of practical experience.

(b) Specialist contracting (sub-contractors and trade contractors)

 As long as

• these practitioners do not carry out building work under direct contracts with consumers; or
• if and when they do carry out building work under direct contracts with consumers, such work or such contract is of the type, nature or scope that is specifically permitted to be carried out by unregistered practitioners, they are not required to be registered under the Building Act 1993 and therefore registration is not a condition of their membership of the Association. They are, however, encouraged to obtain limited registration - such as DB-L(carpenter) – whenever this type of registration is available and relevant. The minimum qualification required for membership is one of the following :

• a degree, diploma or associate diploma of building together with not less than 1 year’s practical experience; or
• a relevant Trade Certificate (e.g. Carpentry) together with not less than 2 years of practical experience; or
• not less than 5 years of practical experience.

(c) General contracting and engineering construction

The minimum qualification required for membership in these categories is one of the following :

• a degree, diploma or associate diploma of building together with not less than 3 years of practical experience; or
• a relevant Trade Certificate (e.g. Carpentry) together with not less than 5 years of practical experience; or
• not less than 10 years of practical experience

In addition, General Contracting members must

• be currently registered under the Building Act 1993
  • in the category of Commercial Builder Unlimited (CB-U); or
  • any other category that entitles a practitioner to carry out commercial building work
• and hold current insurance policies as required by the legislative scheme.

3. Business experience

All applicants must have had a minimum of two years in business experience as traders.

4. Referees

Satisfactory references are required from at least 4 independent referees nominated by each candidate. Referees can include:

• Past clients (including owner builders)
• Current clients
• Previous employers/supervisors
• Trade suppliers

5. Other checks

Satisfactory financial and criminal history reports are a pre-condition for acceptance of any application.

6. Provisional memberships

Provisional membership status may be granted to applicants who

• intend to qualify for and obtain mandatory registration and insurance cover under the Building Act 1993, and
• fulfill all other criteria for membership.

BUT this status will only be available until

• either admission as a full member of the Association when the applicant has successfully met all mandatory registration and insurance requirements relevant to its sector;
• or the expiry of two (2) years of provisional membership, whichever is first.